After technical studies, Francesco Lauretta moved to Venice and attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Emilio Vedova’s class. He graduated in 1989, presenting a thesis on James Lee Byars, the American artist he met in Venice, who would influence his early works shown in Turin, where he relocated in 1991.

In Turin, he met the artists of arte povera and began creating installation works. He started exhibiting white pieces—monumental sculptures bordering on minimalism—and olfactory works. He used soap petals placed on drawers that destabilized recognizable everyday elements such as sofas, altars, doors, walls, and so on.

He also exhibited letters and projects resembling large postcards on transparent parchments. In 1992, he began reflecting on the possibilities of painting through its medium, and created the first trial of a painting he called a “photocopy”: a faithful copy of a photocopy, made with water-based black-and-white paints, reproducing Marcel Duchamp’s bottle rack.

Following a first solo exhibition at Galleria Noire, in 1993 he presented a show titled Destinazioni in two spaces simultaneously: at Noire and at Franca Recalcati’s gallery.