The genius of Ambrosino lies in his ability to speak, at once, to the “mundane” and “sacred” in us. When I first came across his work, I was both, consoled and stricken by an incomprehensible melancholy. The figures seemed to me both, liberated yet oppressed. The colors were simultaneously joyful yet austere. I was in the presence of an artistic dichotomy in terms of semantic and style, the likes of which are very rare to come by.The art historian in me was immediately hurled into a hunt for comparisons in an attempt to address the work in a scholarly fashion.