Giuseppe Gallo, Merletto veneziano, 2004

Giuseppe Gallo (Rogliano, Italy 1954)

Born in Calabria in 1954, Giuseppe Gallo moved to Rome in 1976 where, that same year, he held his first solo exhibition at the Horseshoe Gallery. At the beginning of the eighties, together with Ceccobelli, Dessì, Nunzio, Pizzi Cannella and Tirelli, he was part of the San Lorenzo School (where the various artists set up their studios inside a former Cerere pasta factory), destined to become the point of reference for a new pictorial season, characterized by the recovery of traditional techniques and iconographies revisited in a modern key.

Gallo stood out for his insistent use of figuration, painted on abstract backgrounds, with bright chromatic tones. There are animal and mythological figures, fragments and quotes from the past, through which he creates an evocative scene, full of symbols, with a subtle ironic streak.

Present on the international scene from 1979, he participated in the 1981 collective exhibition at the Groninger Museum and held several solo exhibitions in New York in the 1980s (Annina Nosei Gallery, 1983, and Sperone Westwater, 1986), as well as participating in the Venice Biennale of 1986 in the Art and Alchemy section and in the 1990 edition with a personal room.

Solo exhibitions, fundamental to his career, were held in Rende (Cosenza) in 2001 and Spoleto in 2004. His more recent solo exhibitions were at the Shield Gallery in Verona (2005) and the MACRO in Rome (2008).

Between 2009 and 2010, he joined numerous exhibitions in important Italian museums and public spaces such as: Contemporary Italy, Officina San Lorenzo at the MART and The 1980s. Also, An Italian Perspective, at the Royal Villa in Monza, and Keep your seat: stay in your place at the GAM in Turin.

The Italian Contemporary Art Center in Foligno dedicated a solo exhibition to him in 2010. In 2013, he held a solo exhibition at the Oratory of San Rocco in Padua.

The artworks of Giuseppe Gallo are part of prestigious public collections such as the MoMA in New York, The Modern Museum Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna, the Fukuyama Museum of Art, the MART in Rovereto, the GAM in Turin and the Parkview Green Museum in Beijing.