Luigi Pellanda, an artist in the prime of his activity, has showed his works in over eighty exhibitions. Art critics believe he is quite an original artist since his works have something in common with Caravaggio and still belong to a long historic tradition; they can create a whole new system of symbols, which stem from contemporary reality and eventually interpret it. The artist's skills and craft lie at the basis of his works: Pellanda uses different materials and techniques both for his paintings and sculptures; his mastery of technique can be perceived through his bronze statues and refined images, either expressed by heavy or subtle lines. These works are generally referred to as "still lives", even though they are often characterized by the interpretation of common objects; still images or natural elements deprived of their usual life acquire an amazing expressing power, almost as if they were filled with a new life. This liveliness marks a moment of change and shows how the artist's creativity is always alive, even through the representation of "dead" objects. In accordance with his iconographic tradition, Pellanda transforms these images into the symbols of events and situations of deep significance, no matter how poor they are. The symbolic power of these images arises from the artist's craft and imagination: wooden cutlery, old shells, cabbages, mushrooms and tomatoes look like the symbols of real, almost human situations. Pellanda's works provide a symbolic representation of human beings and their lives. Through the use of this imagery, Pellanda gives a symbolic value to real events and even everyday situations. His art reflects the role art has played throughout the centuries; it shows how beauty, which has long since influenced the definition of artistic value, is an effective formula to represent and convey the sense of life. Pellanda creates about twenty-five works a year, all of which are entirely the product of his creativity, even in their tiniest elements. Pellanda looks for his materials, works at the frames, chooses the titles for his works and so on. His personality can be easily spotted through his works, which have a clear imagery and style; it is possible, however, to notice a change in the artist's taste and expressive modes if we look at how his creativity has developed throughout the years. Let us have a look at the works of the 1980s, a time when Pellanda was emerging as an artist and developing his individual style: there is a clear naturalistic inspiration in the trees and animals he portrayed, which are not isolated but well identifiable as part of their own environment. The figures of later works seem to be rather isolated from their environment; they no longer belong to a specific setting but are rather part of an open, living space. Landscapes are no longer identifiable; they are rather carved out of their own environment and fixed on the canvas, against a neutral background. The work of art is always a symbol of intellectual or moral values, a metaphor of thoughts and emotions; in Pellanda's case, this meaning of the images becomes more intense and evident. In the early '90s Pellanda chose to work at the location of objects, placing them on a tablecloth, or on a table against a dark background. It is not easy to tell if this background is a wall or something abstract; Pellanda starts focusing more and more often on different fabrics, to which he gives different shapes, thus stressing on their substance and matter. We should notice how natural figures, either natural or grown by men, tend to fit in with the familiar setting and the whole composition created by the artist; leaves and vegetables seem to be part of the very baskets and vases which contain them; the natural phases of ripening and decaying are linked with each other and express the continuous cycle of life. Later on, Pellanda endows his works with a "metallic" quality: without losing their immediacy, natural elements are deprived of their softness and of the effects of decay: apples of wood or bronze, although "ruined" by spots which recall a process of natural change, are thus deprived of their sense of frailty. Although "Ripening" portrays a series of persimmons, thus hinting at different moments of the life of the fruit, each single fruit has a life of its own. This aspect of Pellanda's production acquires a deeper symbolic meaning when the artist represents the conch, a natural element which seems to be isolated from the cycle of life, from its frailty. The conch is a silent image, and has an extraordinary, "metallic" quality. Pellanda has recently focused on the theme of the conch, or rather, he has chosen the conch as the most symbolic and powerful image of his whole production, although he still works at paintings of flowers, fruits and other natural elements. One of Pellanda's most representative works, "Tridacna", portrays a natural element, depicted as a sort of metallic vase, with no signs or cracks; this vase seems to encompass all the symbols of life evoked by the artist. The conch is a product of nature, almost free from the process of life; it seems to escape the natural frailty of things and achieve a condition of immortality. One of the most interesting aspects of Pellanda's works is the artist's capacity to render with great effectiveness the passing of time and the symbols of the absolute.