Giuseppe Gallo

Giuseppe Gallo was born in Rogliano (Cosenza, Italy) in 1954. Since 1976 he has been living and working in Rome, where he inaugurated his first solo show at the Ferro di Cavallo Gallery. In 1979 he made his first appearance on the international art scene with the exhibition Europa ’79 in Stuttgart. During these years he settled his studio in the former past factory Cerere, in the San Lorenzo district in Rome. In this period his presence at the national and international level has intensified: he participated in exhibitions at the Ferranti Gallery in Rome, at the Groninger Museum in Groningen, in 1981 at the Haus am Waldsee in Berlin; his debut in New York with the Annina Nosei Gallery dates to 1983. He took part to the group show Atelier curated by Achille Bonito Oliva in 1984, L’Italie aujourd’hui/Italia Oggi in Nice and the Anniottanta exhibition in Bologna in 1985. In the same year he was invited to participate at the XIIIe Biennale de Paris. Between 1986 and 1992, he inaugurated five international solo shows: at Sperone Westwater Gallery in New York, with a catalog curated by Giorgio Agamben; at L.A. Louver of Venice; at Akira Ikeda in Tokyo; at Di Meo Gallery in Paris and at Triebold Gallery in Basel. He took part to the Venice Biennale in 1986 and 1990 with a room dedicated to his work in the Italian Pavilion. In 1990 the exhibition Giuseppe Gallo. Oh Vocazione was held first in Rome, at the Gian Enzo Sperone Gallery, and then in Milan at the Claudia Gian Ferrari Contemporary Art Gallery. There, in 1995 he held a solo exhibition titled Giuseppe Gallo. Con le unghie della purezza. Two solo shows dated 1989 and 1993 took place at the Alessandro Bagnai Gallery in Siena: Gallo è pazzo and Giuseppe Gallo. Danza armonia sui volti/sfiora le ciglia/e fermati sulle labbra di chi ride. In 1998 he presented the solo show Tempus edax rerum. Seven Sculptures Measuring Time and Gallo’s Twenty-four Hours in Vienna, at the Galerie Ernst Hilger and later in Paris at the Galerie Di Meo. In 2001 at the Museum of Rende, in his homeland Calabria, he presented Prova Generale, an overview of his entire artistic activity, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva and with the general direction of Tonino Sicoli. The following year he inaugurated an exhibition at the Fondazione Volume! in Rome. In 2004 the retrospective Percorso Amoroso, dedicated to his sculptures, was held at the Galleria Civica di Spoleto, curated by Giovanni Carandente. From 2005 to 2006, a series of solo exhibitions followed one another, such as: Mito-Rito-Sito curated by Rolf Lauter and Mirta D’Argenzio (Galleria dello Scudo, Verona) and Gioco felice di un suonatore di tamburi (Galleria Emilio Mazzoli, Modena). In 2007 a solo exhibition curated by Danilo Eccher was dedicated to his work at MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, retracing 25 years of his artistic production. The following year he inaugurated a large exhibition curated by Inge Herold and Danilo Eccher at the Kunsthalle in Mannheim. In 2008 he held two solo exhibitions: Giuseppe Gallo and Symphonie en trois mouvements at the Galerie Di Meo in Paris. Between 2009 and 2010 he participated in numerous group exhibitions at important Italian museums and public spaces, such as: Italia Contemporanea, Officina San Lorenzo at MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto; Gli anni 80. Una prospettiva italiana, at Villa Reale in Monza; Keep your seat: Stai al tuo posto at the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin. In 2010 the Centro Italiano Arte Contemporanea in Foligno dedicated to him the solo exhibition La Leggerezza dell’incoscienza. In 2013 the solo show Prismi was held at the Oratorio di San Rocco in Padua. In 2014 the exhibition Gallo morto per amore– piccole sculture corpo a corpo took place at Bibo’s place, in Todi. In 2015 three solo exhibitions have been dedicated to him: Il Quinto Quarto, on the occasion of the ten years of the Pastificio Cerere Foundation; Rettangoli Aurei at the Galerie Italienne in Paris; Una notte ho provato a uccidere un sogno. Da allora non mi sono più svegliato at the Norman-Swabian Castle of Cosenza. Giuseppe Gallo’s artworks are part of prestigious public collections, such as the MoMA in New York, the Museum Modern Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna, the Contemporain Midi Pirenées in Toulouse, the Groninger Museum, the Fukuyama Museum of Art, the Museum Biedermann in Donaueschingen, the MART of Rovereto, the GAM of Turin and the Parkview Green Museum of Beijing.