Francesco Lietti is an Italian artist based in Hong Kong whose work explores the relationship between urban environments, spatial perception, and material construction.

Born in Lecco, on the southern shore of Lake Como, Italy, Lietti studied architecture in Milan before continuing his education in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts La Seine. He later completed a postgraduate diploma in Urban Planning at London South Bank University. Prior to dedicating himself full time to his artistic practice, he worked as an architect in London with Denton Corker Marshall and Gustafson + Porter, and later in Hong Kong with Aedas, where he has lived and worked for many years.

Painting has remained a constant throughout his professional and creative journey. For more than twenty-five years, Lietti has developed a visual language shaped by layering, fragmentation, rhythm, and structural composition, drawing from both direct observation and his experience of architecture and urban space.

His early work focused primarily on the visual and experiential dimension of cities, translating dense urban environments into compositions that move between representation and abstraction. Over time, his practice has evolved toward a more distilled and reflective direction. While retaining elements of his established vocabulary, his recent work increasingly investigates the underlying systems, structures, and spatial conditions that shape contemporary environments.

The city itself has become less a subject to depict and more a starting point for exploring how places are organised, layered, compressed, and experienced. Working across painting, collage, and mixed-media processes, Lietti develops compositions that balance architectural structure with atmospheric presence. His more recent works introduce greater material depth and spatial complexity through layered surfaces and sculptural construction, extending the dialogue between painting and physical space.

Living and working in Hong Kong continues to play a significant role in shaping this evolution. The city's density, verticality, and coexistence of natural and built environments inform a practice centred on spatial tension, adaptation, transformation, and the experience of contemporary space.

Lietti's work has been exhibited internationally across Asia, Europe, and the United States, and includes artist residencies, commissioned projects, and collaborations with private collectors, luxury brands, and corporate organisations. His works are held in private and corporate collections worldwide, including Louis Vuitton, Cushman & Wakefield, T. Rowe Price, EFG International, and others.

 

My Hong Kong Story

What began as an overland journey from London towards Australia changed course somewhere along the way. Travelling through Russia, Mongolia and China, Francesco eventually arrived in Hong Kong, where an unexpected opportunity turned a temporary stop into a new home.

His first encounter with Victoria Harbour at sunset left a lasting impression. The city’s energy, density, and unusual proximity between urban life and nature would go on to shape both his life in Asia and the way he looked at the city as an artist.

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A London Tale

Francesco’s years in South London marked the beginning of a more consistent painting practice. Starting with discarded furniture panels from the house he shared, he gradually moved onto canvas, exploring different neighbourhoods at weekends and turning those observations into paintings.

An early exhibition in a local gastro-pub led to a travelling series of shows across pubs and restaurants throughout South London, followed by an artist-run gallery on the South Bank. It was an informal but formative period in which painting became an increasingly important part of his life.

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Rock ’n’ Road

Travel, architecture, painting and motorcycles come together in this portrait of Francesco as a restless traveller whose curiosity has taken him across Europe, Asia and beyond. Motorbikes became another way of experiencing places more closely, often far from the usual routes.

That traveller’s instinct also found its way into his paintings. Memories, colour and observation are layered with fragments collected along the road, including newspaper clippings, receipts and transport tickets, turning journeys and lived experience into part of the material language of the work.

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