Gianni Piacentino : Works and Data 1965-2014, Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Roma

Gianni Piacentino : Works and Data 1965-2014 
Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Roma 
Through May 18, 2014 

Gianni Piacentino 

"CROSS RACE 1 (H.R.V.F.W.)" 1999-2000 

Various materials cm. 320 x 435,6 x 35

Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea, Roma, presents a solo show by GIANNI PIACENTINO. The exhibition features a selection of works by the artist that testify the great vitality and versatility of its production, in addition to a 2013 version of his classical vehicle with a tubular frame and triangular tank.

The work of Gianni Piacentino turns out to be a unique case in the Italian and international scene. He started his career in ‘65 with large monochrome canvases and in ‘66 with large geometric elements finished with absolutely invented colors, contemporary to the minimalist American art, at the time unknown in Europe, where there still was a total pop culture. 

Gianni Piacentino 

FRONTAL 4_6 (Mat Metal Titanium Gray) 2005-2008 

Water-base enamel (2K acrylic matt finish) on resin, aluminum, stainless steel cm. 56,5 x 286 x 8

Initially associated with the Arte Povera, Gianni Piacentino participated in the first exhibition of the movement at the gallery of Gian Enzo Sperone in Turin in 1966 and to the most important group shows of Arte Povera, in particular, “Arte Povera Piú Azioni Povere” at the former arsenal of Amalfi in 1968 - and then the exhibition “Prospect ‘68” at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. 

Gianni Piacentino, however, has developed its own autonomous language disaffiliating himself from the group. The symbols or geometric forms of his earliest works (poles, triangulars, crosses, disks, trapezoids), make space at first to everyday objects (tables, portals, windows), and consequently, by the late ‘60s, his minimalist sculptures translate into aerodynamic shapes which tend more and more to celebrate the myth of speed and engines, the movement and dynamism of the machine.

Gianni Piacentino is an artist and also manufacturer, combines an aesthetic approach to a maniacal perfectionism and self-discipline in the technical formal yield - in fact it was also a consultant for a manufacturer of specialty paints, designer and racing Sidecar “passenger”. 

Gianni Piacentino 

AILERONS ALU_SCULPTURE MS ( 2 A. 2 RV. F. W.) _2 2007- 2008 

2K acrylic (water-base) on aluminum, polished aluminum (anticorodal) cm. 14 x 253,5 x 17

His passion for “The Aesthetics of Technique” will become his trademark. His works are improbable objects, impossible vehicles prototypes, automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft, while metaphors of an object and constant investigation of the relationship between artistic creativity and the industrial process, the boundary between art and real objects. He remains a figure of great importance in virtue of originality and modernity of his vision.

Born in Coazze (Turin) in 1945, GIANNI PIACENTINO lives and works in Turin. The works of Piacentino has been exhibited in numerous galleries and national and international public institutions, such as the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, MoMA PS1 in New York, the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen, the University Museum in Sydney, the Museum am Ostwall in Dortmund and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. In 1970 he began his collaboration with the great German art dealer and collector Reinhard Onnasch with solo exhibitions in Cologne in 1970 and 1974, in New York City in 1975 and in Berlin in 1983 and 2008. He also participated in Documenta 6 in Kassel (1977), the XLV Venice Biennale (1993) and the Quadrennial in Rome ( 1973 and 2005).

Giacomo Guidi Arte Contemporanea
Palazzo Sforza Cesarini
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 282-284
00186 Roma
www.giacomoguidi.it