GIANNI DESSI (Italian, b. 1955)

“Del Riposo”, 1983

Oil on Japan paper, signed, dated and titled by the artist in ink on the verso, framed.

Sheet: 9 x 12 ½ inches

Frame: 14 x 17 inches

PROVENANCE: Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin; Pippa Scott Collection.

Gianni Dessì was born in 1955 in Rome, where he lives and works. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome with Toti Scialoja, participated in numerous group shows, and had his first solo exhibition in 1979 at Galleria Ugo Ferranti. In 1984, Achille Bonito Olivo curated the exhibition Ateliers, with which Dessì and the artists of the Nuova Scuola Romana (Ceccobelli, Gallo, Nunzio, Pizzi Cannella, Tirelli and Bianchi) came to the fore in the contemporary art scene. He participated in the 1981 Sao Paolo Biennial and the 1982 Des Jeunes Artistes biennial in Paris, and was invited to the Venice Biennial twice, in 1984 and 1986, participating in the XI Quadriennale of Rome in the latter year as well. In 1995 Danilo Eccher presented a major retrospective at the Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea of Trento. In 2006 he had a solo show at MACRO in Rome, and in 2009 Mart of Rovereto dedicated an extensive showcase to his work as part of the exhibition Italia Contemporanea Officina San Lorenzo. Dessì has also worked regularly with the theater, creating sets for Wagner’s Parsifal directed by Peter Stein and conducted by Claudio Abbado in Salzburg in 2002, and the Bela Bartok opera Il castello del duca Barbablù at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 2008, among others. He has had numerous solo shows at galleries including Ugo Ferranti in Rome, Folker Skulima in Berlin, Gian Enzo Sperone in Rome, Galleria dello Scudo in Verona, Sperone Westwater in New York, Triebold in Basel, L.A. Louver in Venice, Los Angeles, Volker Diehl in Berlin and Galerie di Meo in Paris. Since 1990, Galleria Alessandro Bagnai has built a privileged relationship with the artist that has resulted in five solo shows and numerous group ones, as well as contributions to the realization of exhibitions in important public spaces in Italy and abroad. One of the most recent museum exhibitions was in 2011 at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint- Étienne in France, curated by Lorand Hegyi.

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