Eine Kuration von Flavio Scaloni, Gallery Manager bei Galerie Lo Scalo – The act of smoking in art serves as a complex metaphor for the passage of time, the ephemeral nature of life, and the blurred lines between sophistication and self-destruction. Symbolically, smoke represents the "vanitas" tradition—a reminder of mortality where rising wisps mirror the fleeting human soul. Psychologically, the cigarette often functions as a prop of contemplation, anxiety, or rebellious identity. Since 1950, artists have shifted from the glamorization of the habit to critical and conceptual explorations. Philip Guston frequently used the cigarette as a symbol of the artist's solitary neurosis in works like "Bad Habits" (1970). David Hockney explored the domestic intimacy of the pipe in "The Student: Homage to Picasso" (1973). In photography, the world-famous Irving Penn captured the gritty, discarded reality of the habit in his transformative series "Cigarettes" (1972), elevating debris to monumental art. This selection examines how contemporary artists continue to use smoke to visualize the invisible breath of existence.