Mauro Perucchetti sold his design and architectural practice and his home twenty years ago, so that he could dedicate himself to art full-time. Finding contentment in dedicating to his art – something he felt he had to do – the artist spent the next three years experimenting with materials before perfecting the formulation of the resin he wanted to use and patenting it. It was lustrous and transparent, forever changing under different lighting conditions, but also chemically hazardous. ‘Perucchetti’s use of polyurethane resins is pioneering’, stated art critic Elspeth Moncrieff.
With bold, synthetic colours and pristine surfaces, Perucchetti’s art appeals to the eyes and to the sense of touch.
The ‘jelly babies’, he has made from 1999 onwards, show him playing games with childhood associations. In Cloning Factory neat rows of the tiny figures, coloured like blackcurrant and lime, strawberry and orange, are laid out on shelves, with random babies standing up and teetering on the edge. The message is unsettling, the imagery cute. His series of Jelly Baby Family has been installed at many famous locations, including in front of the Louvre in Paris, Rome, US and Marble Arch in London. Besides numerous art fairs, he was invited in 2011 to present three monumental works at Rome’s first-ever festival of outdoor sculpture, the Rassegna Internazionale di Scultura di Roma.