There is a very famous horse race that dates back to medieval times in Italy called the Palio di Siena. This spectacle is the origin story of Palio, a downtown San Francisco restaurant that has been owned by the DiGrande family for over thirty years. As the younger generation took the reins (no pun intended), they wanted to revive this narrative and evoke the feeling of being immersed in the pomp and action of the Palio di Siena.

With this idea, and in collaboration with an interior designer, I set out to recreate that experience for diners. We designed horses in motion wrapping around the entire restaurant.

What was unique about this project was that I painted the entire piece in my studio, which allowed me to install it seamlessly in just one day, staying out of the fray of the construction process. In terms of form, the artworks were antiqued and presented either as canvas applied directly to the wall or mounted on panels, creating an added sense of dimension in the space.

This way, guests get to experience the historicity, inspiration, and locality of the food through a vivid visual language that calls in not just a sense of place, but also a sense of action.