Oreste Zevola - Tarot cards - Limited Edition

The Oreste Zevola Tarots: Artist's Tarot between Naples and Paris. Limited edition of 2,500 copies.

This deck of Tarot cards represents one of Zevola's most singular forays into the realm of limited-edition art objects. The 78 cards, in an elongated and unusual format for a tarot deck, bear the artist's unmistakable style: abstract figures dominated by black and red, traversed by recurring motifs—elephant heads, boats, funnels, hybrid bodies suspended between the human and the animal.

The accompanying booklet, titled Histoires de Tarots, is the work of Gérard-Georges Lemaire, a French writer and art historian. The co-edition was overseen by Nicky Verfaillie for L’Aire du Verseau and ACL Construction, with printing entrusted to the historic Grimaud-France paper mill, one of the most important European card manufacturers.

The copy presented here is kept in its original, unopened packaging, in perfect condition, a condition hard to find for a 1989 limited-edition release. The cards have never been used and the box has been opened only to inspect the contents and their perfect condition. There is only a small stain, presumably coffee, on the booklet.

Zevola's work is today protected by the Oreste Zevola Archive, directed by Marina Gargiulo, recognized by the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica della Campania for its historical and cultural value.

Oreste Zevola (Naples, 1954–2014) was a painter, sculptor, draftsman, set designer, and illustrator. Active between Naples and Paris, where he chose to settle in the 1980s, he collaborated with international outlets such as the New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Times, Liberation, Forbes, and Bloomberg. In Italy his illustrations and covers appeared in magazines such as Linea d’Ombra, Lo Straniero, and Gli Asini by Goffredo Fofi. In 1980 he was among the founders of the art magazine Juliet in Trieste, together with Roberto Vidali and Antonio Sofianopulo.