Giovanni Gasparro
Giovanni Gasparro was born in 1983 in Bari. He lives and works in the province of the same city, in Adelfia. Graduated in Cultural Heritage and Conservation at the "Giuseppe De Nittis" Art School of the Apulian capital, in 2002, he continued his painting studies with Professor Giuseppe Modica at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, graduating with honors, with a thesis in history of art on Van Dyck's stay in Rome.
He won the Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland award in 1997 and
Duchess of Bari, for a graphic work. In 2006, her painting Last Supper is exhibited in the set design of the film Saturn against by director Ferzan Ozpetek.
Among the important exhibitions, in addition to the first solo show at Galerie 91 in Paris, there is Oil on board. Physiognomies of culinary art in painting from the 17th to the 21st century, in 2008, at the former hospice of the Pellegrini at the Abbadia di Fiastra (Macerata), where, the only painter representing the 21st century, he closed an exhibition itinerary that proceeded from Bernardo Strozzi, Spadarino and Empoli, up to Morbelli, Guttuso, Cagnaccio di San Pietro, Casorati and De Pisis.
In 2009 he exhibited in the Roman headquarters of the Russo Gallery, for his first Italian solo exhibition, curated by the historian and art critic Paolo Serafini (Catalog De Luca Editori), one of the leading experts in Venetian painting of the nineteenth century. From the same year is the selection for the great anthological exhibition on contemporary figuration Contemplazioni, curated by Alberto Agazzani for the Castel Sismondo in Rimini.
There are also several participations in international contemporary art fairs such as Artefiera in Bologna or ArtParis at the Grand Palais in Paris, ArtVerona, Arte Padova and numerous group exhibitions.
The 2010 exhibition of the painting Luncheon in Bethany at the International Antiques Biennial of Rome at Palazzo Venezia, alongside works by Boccioni, Paladino, Picasso, De Chirico, Lorenzo Lotto, Canaletto, Canova, Brueghel, Murillo and numerous great authors from antiquity to the contemporary scene.
There are also several radio passages and on national and foreign televisions. Also important is the space dedicated to him by the French magazine AZART in 2009, with a long article by the director Gérard Gamand.
For the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Gasparro was invited by Vittorio Sgarbi, curator of the Italian Pavilion, to represent the Lazio Region Pavilion with other artists, exhibiting the painting Deus absconditus in the Roman seat of Palazzo Venezia ( SKIRA catalog).
In 2012 he created the work Anomalia with the Largillière hat for the Costa Fascinosa, the largest cruise ship in Europe, in the Costa Cruises fleet, and exhibited Insatiability. Forgetting Witkiewicz, at the National Picture Gallery of Bologna and the Alinari National Museum of Photography in Florence, for the IV Fabbri Prize for Art, curated by Alberto Agazzani (SKIRA Catalog). The work is currently in the permanent collection of the Fabbri Museum in Bologna.
The Archdiocese of L'Aquila (with a financial contribution from the Rome Foundation), following the devastating earthquake of 2009, commissioned him to create the entire pictorial cycle for the decoration of the Basilica of San Giuseppe artigiano (Ex. San Biagio d 'Amiternum, 13th century). The altarpieces for the eighteenth-century marble altarpieces of the apsidal chapel of San Giuseppe artigiano, were previewed as an event associated with the XIV Week of Culture of the MiBACT (Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) in L'Aquila , in the Cathedral of Santi Giorgio e Massimo d'Aveia, with an iconographic presentation of the Metropolitan Archbishop SE Mons. Giuseppe Molinari, the Director
Regional for Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Abruzzo Fabrizio Magani, and Vittorio Sgarbi. Among the latest exhibitions, Painting the Mystery is worth mentioning. The art of faith today on contemporary sacred painting, official exhibition for the Year of Faith announced by S.S. Pope Benedict XVI, curated by Don Alessio Geretti of the Committee of San Floriano di Illegio, in the offices of Udine and Tolmezzo.
With the work Casti connubii inspired by the homonymous encyclical, on the family and against abortion, by S.S. Pope Pius XI of 1930, won the 2013 Bioethics Art Competition of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights. The painting was exhibited in Hong Kong for the Third International Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion Workshop and Conference before stopping in Mexico City and Houston.
The painting Quum memoranda depicting the Servant of God S.S. Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti led into exile by the Napoleonic troops, and winner of the Pio Alferano Award 2014 (artistic director Vittorio Sgarbi) and the first Excellent Painters Award - Brazzale in 2015.
As part of the International Celebrations for the IV Centenary of the birth of Mattia Preti, he exhibits at the National Gallery of Palazzo Arnone in Cosenza in the exhibition Giovanni Gasparro versus Mattia Preti, curated by Fabio De Chirico (Catalog Rubbettino with essays by Mons. Daniel Estivill , Angelo Loda, Alexander Debono and Simona Tosini Pizzetti).
In 2016, the itinerant exhibition-conference Vicar of Christ between Faith and History, curated by Carlo Manetti and Cristina Siccardi, at the Sala dei Papi of the Royal Basilica of Superga in Turin. In the same year, the personal exhibition at the Casino dell'Aurora in Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome, under the famous fresco of the Aurora by Guido Reni, among the works of Annibale Carracci, Luca Giordano, Cavalier d'Arpino and Carlo Saraceni. Even more recent is the Sensus Fidei exhibition at the P. Tacchi Venturi Civic Art Gallery in San Severino Marche (Macerata) in which the Holy Family of Gasparro was placed in direct confrontation with the Madonna della Pace by Pinturicchio. Other paintings have been placed side by side with the works of the museum, in a path that winds between the polyptychs by Vittorio Crivelli and Nicolò di Liberatore called l'Alunno, the frescoes by the Salimbeni brothers, the paintings by Paolo Veneziano and Bernardino di Mariotto, up to the San Bartolomeo del Cerano.
Many of the exhibitions in which he participated enjoyed the patronage of the Presidency of the Italian Republic, the Senate of the Republic, the Chamber of Deputies and numerous Ministries, as well as regional, provincial and municipal institutions.
Numerous works by Gasparro have converged in important European and American public and private collections and are reproduced on the cover of publications on theology, "classical" music and literature.
Tuttifantchen
2012
oil painting on canvas
120 x 70 cm
San Sebastiano curato da Sant’Irene
2013
oil painting on canvas
205 x 165 cm
O felix culpa
2013
oil on mirror
110 x 120 cm
