Michael Gambino
Michael Gambino, was born in New York in 1988. After having deepened his studies in Science and Biology, Gambino graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in the field of Visual Arts. In 2012 he was selected by critic Ivan Quaroni as an artist to be presented in the spaces of Affordable Art Fair 2012 in Milan at the Eventiquattro space (of the new executive building of the Sole 24 Ore, designed by Renzo Piano) and, again in the same year, he prepares his
first personal exhibition Metamorfosi at the Scaligero Castle in Malcesine (Verona). The following year, the solo exhibition Beautiful flying opens at the Colossi Contemporary Art Gallery.
In 2011 he participated in several group exhibitions at the Cairati Art Gallery of Morcote in Switzerland, the “Il Ponte” Gallery and the Civic Art Gallery of Pieve di Cento on the occasion of the exhibition Exercises of admiration in the night. Art, Fashion, Music and Design on the European Night of Museums. In 2012 he won the Prize of the Visual Arts Competition organized by the Assogestioni association, on the occasion of the Salone del Risparmio event in the prestigious location of the Grafton building, the new congress center of the Bocconi University of Milan and participates in the international meeting of land artists Humus Park at the Park of the Archaeological Museum and the Roman Villa of Torre (Pordenone). In 2013 she joined The Italian Wave group with which she exhibited in Turkey, Greece, Romania and Lithuania and participated in several international contemporary art exhibitions including Art Athina and Art Vilnius, both held in 2014.
In 2013 he also participated in the review created by the Flangini Association, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC and the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington DC, entitled We are what we eat - Sustainability and art / Are we what we eat? - Sustainability and Art. For the occasion, his works are exhibited in various prestigious locations in Washington DC and Milan: the Pirelli Skyscraper, the former Church of San Carpoforo (Brera) in Milan and the Atrium of The Corcoran Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery 31 in Washington DC. In 2014 he was invited by the curators, Daniele Torcellini and Linda Kniffitz, to participate in the collective Eccentrico Musivo. Young Artists and Mosaic at the MAR-Museum of Art of the City of Ravenna and one of his works becomes part of the prestigious permanent collection of the museum. On the occasion of the Mental Geography exhibition at the Musée Ianchelevici in La Louvière in Belgium, some of his installations remain on permanent display. In the same year he participated in the collective I Have a Dream curated by Melissa Proietti and Raffaella A. Caruso, hosted in the halls of Palazzo Reale in Milan, which marks the Milanese stage of the Freedom Fighters exhibition. The Kennedys and the battle for civil rights, carried out on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Martin Luther King Jr.
In 2015 his works are exhibited at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan, on the occasion of the exhibition curated by Chiara Canali, among those taking part in the Milano Città Mondo International Contest. He was also invited by the art critic Simona Gavioli to participate in the exhibition Siam come le lucciole organized in the Riserva di Fizzano di Rocca delle Macìe in Castellina in Chianti (Siena), an exhibition later transferred to the premises of Palazzo Gromo Losa and the Museo del Territory of Biella, at the request of the Cassa di Risparmio di Biella Foundation. Gambino was selected for the use of luminescence in his works, this being the central theme of the exhibition, dedicated to raising public awareness on the topic of energy saving in the International Year of Light (2015). In the same year, he was invited to exhibit at the Museum of the Stadium of Domitian in Rome on the occasion of the Mafia Capitale exhibition. Rome at the time of lubricated gears. Reactive Contemporary Art, curated by Antonietta Campilongo.
He was also invited to create a representative logo for the candidacy of Rome as the venue for the 2024 Olympic Games. With his works he has participated in the main national and international fairs: ArtVerona, Artefiera Bologna, ArtLondon, ST-ART. Foire Européenne d’Art Contemporain in Strasbourg, Art Karlsruhe.
In 2016 he was chosen for the group exhibition Shakespeare in Rome organized by the Galleria Russo in Rome with the patronage of the British Council, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. In addition, he is planning an exhibition at the Casa del Mantegna in Mantua and, in the autumn, at the MAM in Gazoldo degli Ippoliti (Mantua). Michael Gambino's works are populated with rarefied and three-dimensional clusters of paper butterflies, patiently hand-cut and pinned to the canvas, which define the fleeting and fleeting geographical boundaries of his unprecedented and personal cartography of the world, made up of evanescent compositions of impalpable miniatures, combined with a marked chromatic sensitivity. This ephemeral and volatile composition fades towards the infinity of emptiness in evanescent trails, sometimes it is arranged in vortices and spirals around vintage books, placed on a neutral background that lights up with luminescent glows in the dark, in homage to the natural phenomenon of bioluminescence. In his works, the flow of these creatures continues to regenerate, animated by the same fluid life energy that moves biological cycles in nature, the metamorphoses of the organic matter that the artist knows well thanks to an education initially aimed at the field of biology and chemistry. Thus the butterfly, an ancient symbol of metamorphosis and rebirth, becomes a metaphor of universal harmony that binds all aspects of life, in constant change. This becomes possible by taking inspiration from the Chaos Theory of the American mathematician Edward Lorenz, according to which there is a logical system of cyclical connections and recurrences that regulates the course of events at a considerable temporal and spatial distance between them, of which the butterfly effect represents the generator principle (“Can the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?”). In Gambino's poetics, this wonderful creature with multicolored wings becomes the piece to represent the entirety of the dynamics that govern the progress of social, natural, political and economic balances on our planet.
He lives and works between Varese and Brescia.
District of Instanbul
2019
paper butterflies cut out by hand and pinned to stand
85 x 140 cm
Royal Academy 1902
2015
paper butterflies cut out by hand and pinned to stand
110 x 100 cm
