Leonardo Verkoelen
October 20, 2025
Hello Alfred! It’s great to have you here on our Artist Spotlight. Could you please introduce yourself?
Alfred Francis Pietroni, I also go by the name Exile, I’m a digital artist based in London.
Your love for dark fantasy and horror truly shines in your work. Do you fear many things in your own life?
My main one is Thalassophobia; the fear of deep water, unknown depths and aquatic creatures. In particular I hate squids… something about their unknown size, swimming prowess, alien-like design and movement, it’s my worst nightmare.
I also hate monkeys because I was attacked by two when I was travelling in Thailand. They are violent little monsters just like humans.
Hahah that sounds like a terrifying experience. What is it you are looking for when exploring the uncanny?
Something that captures my emotional state, something that says ‘pain’ and ‘love’
When I go through your work, your characters, your worlds, I sense an underlying tone of existentialism. Would you personally live in these nightmarish worlds?
No, I just want a happy life, maybe I could be a detective in a French black and white film who just can’t seem to crack a case, or a hopeless poet in a Tarkovsky film, but I definitely don’t want to live in a world of hate and violence.
I see… That’s good to hear. Your exploration of fashion seems to continuously evolve from the grotesque to the macabre, to the erotic and the mechanical.
In that same line of thought, is form-follows-function important to the fashion designs you create?
I want my designs to feel like they live in our world in some sense and that they are grounded in a reality that can be grasped. But the joy of working in digital 3D is you can design anything that you can imagine, so I love to explore that idea and craft looks that would typically not work in real life; Impossibly heavy suits of armour, blinded models, clothing and materials that restrict the body completely etc.
From early video-game graphics to DnD illustrations, what is it that speaks to you about this aesthetic?
I am not sure, I think it’s mostly to do with what you grow up with and what you see when you are younger, what you are exposed to as a teenager is so important.
My main influence was MTG, it was my first exposure to fantasy art, it sparked a love of world building and creative thinking. As a kid I would sit on my own and draw goblins, mountains and siege machines, scenes of wars along these big rolls of paper.
Medieval fantasy will always sit at the core of my love for art, it’s imaginative and violent, it transports you somewhere else and there is something calming about that.
Ah nice! I’d do the same on big rolls of paper. Big scenes of dragon-warfare. There is something really special about the medieval fantasy genre. It’s endlessly rich.
You produce a large quantity of looks for one collection. Is it fair to say that the limited polycount and texture resolutions help you cut out production time?
I wouldn't exactly say my models are low poly, some are in the millions of polycount. I think it's my use of textures and a natural stylisation that makes them appear low poly. In terms of production time, this is purely based on an unknown factor for when a look feels done for me.
Interesting. Is there something else you gain from this approach?
I reach somewhere between the art forms of fashion and game design, this brings me a sense of satisfaction in some regard, appeasing two sides of myself.
How experimental are you in your art-creation process? Or is the experimental feel of your work actually a calculated approach?
I'm fairly experimental and I rarely have a solid idea in my mind, I enjoy an organic process and back and forth relationship with art. For example with my fashion design approach I will have a good hat design or maybe a weapon I think can be a focal point and then I will experiment around this and build a silhouette and artistic language that feels coherent and speaks visually and emotionally to me.
From Unholy Grotto to Vile World, all of your work seems to have an incredible sense of world-building behind them. Is creating an original IP something you’ve considered?
World building is incredibly potent to me, the nature of being able to create a universe and carve out an atmospherical landscape; nothing is better. The dream would be to work in film some day with my own IP.
Would really love to see that IP come to life!
If we look at the future of art, design and expression. The digital world is bridging ever closer to the physical world. Where and how do you see your art playing a part in that future?
I'm honestly not sure. The future is interesting in some ways, and boring in a lot of other ways. It seems the further we advance the more we regress. I'm happy with what we have at the moment.
Do you recall any recent nightmares you’d wish to share?
I just looked at my notes where I sometimes write scrappy dream memories, here is one: “Small robotic doll I constructed to lie on my chest while I sleep to protect me from the freaks from ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ who were chasing me and trying to eat me.”
Lovely. Comforting.
Alfred, what kind of advice would you give to someone thinking of a career in Art and Fashion Design? There is always a new generation taking their first steps into this adventure.
Absorb everything and anything in the world until you find something that fuels you, don’t ever let this fire die. See the beauty and hate in everything, let the landscape speak to you, experience deep solitude and abundance of love, listen to your emotions, write and read, watch films by directors with artistic minds. Keep producing and creating, not because you need to live and pay rent but because you can’t live without it.
100%. That’s a very important message. Wow, that was already it Alfred! Thank you so much for being a part of this!
As always, we like to end the Artist Spotlight with a personal recommendation from the artist. Any good films, books, habits, or anything else you’d like to recommend to the reader?
Watch ‘A Snake of June’ (2002) directed by Shin’ya Tsukamoto.
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