Giovanni Gasparro
Giovanni Gasparro was born in Bari on October 22, 1983. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 2007, where he studied under the painter Giuseppe Modica, completing a thesis in art history on Anthony van Dyck's Roman period.
His first solo exhibition was held in Paris in 2009. That same year, his first Italian monographic exhibition took place at Galleria Russo in Rome. His painting The Last Supper appears in Ferzan Özpetek's film Saturno contro (Saturn in Opposition).
In 2011, the Archdiocese of L'Aquila commissioned him to create nineteen works—including altarpieces and decorative upper panels—for the 13th-century Basilica of Saint Joseph the Worker, which had been damaged in the 2009 earthquake. This commission resulted in one of the largest cycles of contemporary sacred painting produced in recent decades.
In 2012, he created Anomaly with Largillière's Hat for Costa Fascinosa, then the largest cruise ship in Europe and part of the Costa Cruises fleet.
In 2013, he won the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights Bioethics Art Competition with the painting Casti connubii, an anti-abortion work inspired by Pope Pius XI's 1930 encyclical of the same name. The work was subsequently exhibited in Hong Kong, Houston, and Mexico City. The following year, his painting Quum memoranda – Portrait of Pope Pius VII received both the Pio Alferano Prize and the Eccellenti Pittori – Brazzale Prize, distinctions that were awarded to him again in 2024 and 2026 respectively.
Gasparro has exhibited at the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, as well as at numerous prestigious institutions, including the National Gallery of Cosenza alongside works by Mattia Preti; the National Picture Gallery of Bologna; the Royal Basilica of Superga in Turin; the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli and Palazzo Venezia in Rome; the Alinari National Museum, the Museo degli Innocenti, and the Villa Bardini Museums in Florence; Castel Sismondo and the City Museum of Rimini; Guido Reni's Casino dell'Aurora at Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi in Rome; the Municipal Art Gallery of San Severino Marche alongside works by Pinturicchio; the Corrado Giaquinto Art Gallery in Bari; the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa; the Labirinto della Masone of Franco Maria Ricci in Fontanellato; the Diocesan Museums of Imola and Molfetta; the Napoleonic Museum and the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome; the Eremitani Museums in Padua; the Grand Palais in Paris; the MART – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto; the MEAM – European Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona, Spain; the Pilotta Monumental Complex in Parma; the Castle of Charles V in Lecce; and the Stadtgalerie in Kiel, Germany.
His works are held in important public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States, as well as in numerous churches and basilicas in Italy—including Siena, Trani, Rome, Gallipoli, Turin, and L'Aquila—and abroad, in Malta, Switzerland, Greece, and Austria.
In 2021, he received the 100 Italian Excellence Award at Rome's Capitoline Hill and unveiled the official portrait of His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain for the Royal Pontifical Basilica of Saint James of the Spaniards in Naples.
In 2022, he made his debut as a theatrical set designer at the Teatro Coccia in Novara with Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, conducted by Fabrizio Maria Carminati and directed by Renato Bonajuto. In the same year, he was selected for the 73rd Premio Michetti.
In 2024, the Municipality of Siena appointed Gasparro to paint the Palio di Siena banner (drappellone) for the July race dedicated to Our Lady of Provenzano, an honor traditionally reserved for artists of internationally recognized distinction. That same year, he received the Art Global – Art and Culture Award at Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
Many of the exhibitions in which Gasparro has participated have been held under the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, the Italian Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, numerous Italian ministries, and various regional and local institutions.
