Using pho­to­gra­phy as a medium for the objec­tive approach to rea­lity, as an inter­pre­ta­tion of the world in cut-out form, was never the main aim of the Ita­lian visual artist, Giu­seppe Lo Schiavo, born 1986 in Cala­bria. The star­ting point for the work of Lo Schiavo, who com­bi­ned the stu­dies of both archi­tec­ture and pho­to­gra­phy, is always an ima­gi­na­tive reproach that by means of a perfectly-staged pic­to­rial  rea­lity assu­mes its visua­liza­tion.
Giu­seppe Lo Schiavo achie­ved his inter­na­tio­nal bre­ak­th­rough in 2012 with „Levi­ta­tion“, a series of pic­tures based on the works of the sur­rea­list pain­ter René Mag­ritte: whe­reas Mag­ritte relies on colour and can­vas for the phy­si­cal inter­pre­ta­tion of the idea behind his pain­ting, with the help of appa­r­ently rea­listic pho­to­gra­phy, Lo Schiavo imme­dia­tely trans­fers these into the fan­tasy of the obser­ver, thus repla­c­ing the obvious arti­fi­cia­lity of pain­ting by direct ima­gi­na­tion.  It is the­re­fore only con­sis­tent that the Par­thenon, the Colos­seum, the Eif­fel Tower, the Taj Mahal or the monu­men­tal sta­tue of Cristo Reden­tor  (Christ the Redee­mer) in Rio de Janeiro appear on floa­ting rocks.  For Giu­seppe Lo Schiavo “these pho­tos do not depict the actual rea­lity but they illus­trate a ‘uni­verse’ made of thoughts, the free­dom of ima­gi­nary poten­tia­lity of the unconscious­ness to ‘levi­tate’ and achieve cogni­tive levels that sur­pass rea­lity.”
On the other hand, his 2013 series „Ad Vivum“ cele­bra­tes the aut­ho­rity of his­to­ric pic­to­rial reper­toires, spe­ci­fi­cally 15th cen­tury Fle­mish por­trait pain­ting.  Colour and form appear, howe­ver, stron­gly redu­ced and devoid of every indi­vi­dua­li­sa­tion.  The term „ad vivum“ (Lat. accor­ding to the living model) used in the por­trait pain­ting of the 15th and 16th cen­tu­ries to pos­tu­late the stron­gest pos­si­ble liken­ess of the pain­ting with the model, is the­re­fore given a recipro­cal level of mea­ning since Lo Schiavo’s pho­to­graphs depict models, who as a result of their fair com­ple­xi­ons and sta­tuary poses, give the impres­sion of anything other than natu­ral­ness: image and effigy seem to exclude each other recipro­cally, the tra­di­tio­nal defi­ni­tion of por­trait liken­ess beco­mes under­mined and repla­ced by arche­typal figu­ra­tion.
His most recent series, „Art Cur­rency“ explo­res the indis­soluble, ambi­va­lent alli­ance bet­ween art and money: since money domi­na­tes all sec­tors of our life, art and crea­ti­vity also become a part of acqui­si­tion through capi­ta­lism. Lo Schiavo trans­mits this ten­sion in a pic­ture series using ultra­vio­let prin­ting tech­no­logy to print the images directly on to US Dol­lar bank­no­tes, crea­ting the impres­sion that the pic­ture moti­ves are indis­solubly inter­wo­ven into the tex­ture of the bank­no­tes.  The sym­bio­tic rela­ti­onship bet­ween artist or work of art and the art mar­ket is demons­tra­ted, among others, through a por­trait by Andy War­hol or by the Par­thenon, which as a result of the eco­no­mic inte­rests of one indi­vi­dual, lost the major part of its figu­ral ornamentation.