GIANNI DI ROSA
ARTIST STATEMENT
Using different mediums, but placing painting at the centre, Gianni Di Rosa's work revolves around different themes. Fields of action that form articulated paths from which interconnected projects arise, which sometimes originate from elements that are systematically interrupted and diverted towards new directions.
Elements that come from different stimuli, worlds that arise from personal and cultural traces, such as from a football match in the 1930s, an Old Testament book, the games and myths of the ancient Maya civilization, an eye operation or a memory lapse. References from which flow and generate open discourses on different levels of thought, within a complex and stratified imaginary, where continuous shifts of meanings follow one another, aligning themselves in a path whose origin can be traced.
BIO
Gianni Di Rosa was born in Modica in 1984, lives and works in Milan. He graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan, with a thesis on the philosophy of art, with lecturers Giacinto Di Pietrantonio and Federico Ferrari.
Main group exhibitions include:
Il Belpaese dell'arte. Etiche ed estetiche della nazione- curated by G. Di Pietrantonio, Gamec,
Bergamo (2011); So/stare- Museo d'arte contemporanea Lissone (2013); Extradelicato-, spazio Via Pantelleria, Milan (2014); Premio FAM Giovani per le Arti Visive- Fabbriche Chiaramontane, Agrigento (2014); Senza ora né rame, Festival studi, Milan (2015); Nove, Museo Riso, Palermo (2015);
Fermata inganni, Festival studi, Milan (2017); The Hawt Show II, Rolando Anselmi Gallery project, Colle Melona Atina (2020); Stasi Frenetica, Artissima Unplugged, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa , GAM Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Turin (2020); About Painting- Galleria Rolando Anselmi, Rome (2021); Trinacria, Cittadella degli Archivi, Milan (2022); Collettiva 1, Galleria Monitor, Rome-Pereto (2022); Personal Showcase, Galleria Rolando Anselmi, Rome (2023); Talitha Kum, BienNolo, curated by G. Di Pietrantonio, Milan (2023).
Solo exhibitions:
The day of triumph is a black hole, Cabinet-Studiolo, Milan (2019);
Le Convocazioni- Galleria Rolando Anselmi Rome, curated by Davide Ferri (2021);
Window Project- Galleria Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (2022).2).
The eye is never satisfied to see
2023, oil on canvas 80×61 cm
Courtesy by the artist and Galerie Rolando Anselmi
The title, The eye is never satisfied to see, takes up one
quotation from the book of Qohelet, old testament, in which the meaning corresponds and reveals the intentions of the work.
[... a nodal point coincides with the gaze, a glassy and opaque gaze, whose imperturbability extends throughout the painting, transforming it into an image that looks enigmatically towards the viewer. This is what happens in The eye is never satisfied to see, where a large golden mask, the result of a hybridization between the Mayan culture and the magical-baroque Sicilian culture seem to radiate its protective gaze throughout the entire space, towards the spectators who finds themselves observing that big eye from bottom to top]. Davide Ferri, from the text of the exhibition “Le Convocazioni” 2021, Rolando Anselmi galerie, Rome.
Golden Ball (Totenkopf)
2024, oil on canvas 52×39 cm
Courtesy by the artist and Galerie Rolando Anselmi
Recurring image in the artist's iconography, belonging to the “Golden
Ball (Totenkopf)”. The figure refers to the master of ceremonies, in charge of awarding, in the act of arranging and preparing the event. In his hands he holds a cup, similar to famous football award, a golden ball from which a skull can be glimpsed. The sphere is
linked to a previous work, “Totenkopf”, the sculpture of a ball/skull which resumes a bas-relief of the ancient Mayan civilization. Totenkopf (German for head of dead), the name used to define the SS departments, due to the badge that they trimmed on their hat.