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Some artists work on the image, and others who work on the fracture of the image. David Pompili belongs to the latter category. Born in Spoleto in 1970, his career spans scenography, graphics, fashion, painting, and even teaching Art History: not as separate stages, but as layers of a single gaze. Scenography, in particular, has left a decisive mark on him: the idea that each work is a space to be inhabited, a small theater where contemporary art takes center stage.
His language blends pop, street, and allegory, yet eschews decorative surfaces. His works feature logos, brands, advertising fragments, and recycled materials—cardboard, plastic, torn posters—elements that belong to the rapid cycle of consumption and, once freed from their fate, become critical memory. It is here that his gesture becomes more deliberate: transforming waste into narrative.
His distinctive trait, in addition to the sharp and vibrant color contrasts, is polka dots: dots that punctuate surfaces like social cells, serial presences that evoke mass, identity, and multiplicity. Each dot is both individual and systemic. A visual grammar that makes his work instantly recognizable, from urban murals to canvases.
In recent years, his career has intersected with projects that have had a strong public impact: from the work “Ho Creduto a Me” (I Believed in Myself), created in Solarolo (RA) for the museum inaugurated on September 7, 2025 and dedicated to Laura Pausini—inspired by a song from the album “Simili”—to the works for Andrea Bocelli at the Teatro del Silenzio, and even urban and international projects such as intervention in Saint-Ouen, France, for the GemellArte festival. Different experiences, yet united by the same desire: to bring art out of neutrality and into the living flow of society.
In this conversation, we explored the origins of his artistic journey, his relationship with his audience, his dialogue with music, and his gaze toward a future that continues to question the present.
How did your artistic journey begin, and what were the formative stages that most influenced your vision and expressive language?
It all began with my education at the Art School, majoring in Scenography, followed by university and, thanks to formative experiences in the fields of Scenography, Graphic Design, Fashion, and Painting, experiences that led me to define, or perhaps seek, the very identity that set me apart, moving from academic experiences to my style, my provocative, pop-street DNA.
Now I can say that my work remains free because it’s more expressive and naturally recognizable. From a mural to a small piece. Set design has been my fundamental path, a guide, where many different approaches, combined, have succeeded in sparking my interest and curiosity, leading me to achieve what I present today.
Graphic design has always been a constant companion on my journey, a powerful aid and translator of many ideas. In the many years I spent with major fashion brands, I also found that source of inspiration there, in creating and thinking, from the garment to transforming everything into a living installation.