Gilberto Zorio
Gilberto Zorio
Gilberto Zorio (1944) belongs to the Arte Povera movement. His work focuses on metamorphoses and alchemy, exploring natural phenomena, such as evaporation or oxidation and their later effect on materials. The idea of energy has always been a constant running through his oeuvre, favoring an art that reveals itself in the making. His interest in electricity led the artist to incorporate lamps, incandescence and phosphorescence into some of his works. In others, he uses stars and javelins, which are archetypal forms connected with energy. His sculpture favors fragile materials, from which emerge gigantic steel stars or Pyrex alembics containing liquid solutions balanced on thin steel javelins. Suspending these elements in intentionally precarious installations, the artist addresses the tensions and transience of the mental physical-chemical world.
Solo exhibitions include Kunstmuseum in Lucerne (‘76), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (‘79), the Ravenna Pinacoteca (‘82), the Venice Biennale (‘78, ‘80, ‘86, ‘95 and ‘97), the Kunstverein in Stuttgart (‘85), the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (‘86), the Tel Aviv Museum and the Stedelijk van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven (‘87), the Philadelphia Tyler School of Art (‘88), Museu Serralves in Oporto (’90), the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderna in Valencia (‘91), the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Pecci in Prato (‘92), Documenta in Kassel (’72 and ‘92), the Galleria civica d’Arte Contemporanea in Trento (‘96), the Dia Center for the Arts in New York (2001), Le Creux de l’Enfer Centre d’Art Contemporain in Thiers and the Institut Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt (2005), the Milton Keynes Gallery (2008), the MAMbo in Bologna (2009) and the CGAC in Santiago de Compostela (2010) among others.