Francesco Vezzoli (born 1971) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

artist and filmmaker.

Work

Vezzoli studied at the

Central Saint Martins School of Art Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from 1992 to 1995. In his early works from 1994 to 1996, he reenvisioned twentieth-century masterpieces by

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

and

Josef Albers Josef Albers ( , , ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and Visual arts education, educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States. Born in 1888 in Bottrop, Westp ...

as modest-sized hand stitched petit point embroideries. Upon his return to Italy, Vezzoli created his first series of films entitled ''An Embroidered Trilogy'' (1997–99).Francesco Vezzoli

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

, New York. 2000 Vezzoli shot the short film ''The Kiss (Let's play Dynasty)'' with

Helmut Berger Helmut Berger (; ''né'' Steinberger; 29 May 1944 – 18 May 2023) was an Austrian actor, known for his portrayal of narcissistic and sexually ambiguous characters. He was one of the stars of European cinema in the late 1960s and 1970s, and is r ...

. In 2002 his films were the subject of a one-man exhibition at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

curated by

Dan Cameron Dan Cameron (born February 12, 1956, in Utica, New York) is an American contemporary art curator. He has served as senior curator for Next Wave Visual Art at Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), an annual exhibition of emerging Brooklyn-based artists ...

. The film ''Non-Love Meetings'' (2004) from the series ''Trilogy of Death'' (2004) presents a game show in which contestants display their talents in hopes of winning the love of such celebrities as actress

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress. She is considered one of the greatest European actresses on film. In 2020, ''The New York Times'' ranked her as one of th ...

. His ''Trailer for the Remake of

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

's Caligula'' (2005), featuring

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, Love has had a career spanning four decades. She rose to promi ...

as the title character, along with

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (; born Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov; 26 July 1945) is an English actor. With a career spanning over six decades of Helen Mirren on screen and stage, screen and stage, List of awards and nominations received by Helen Mirre ...

Benicio del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican actor. List of awards and nominations received by Benicio del Toro, His accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy ...

Milla Jovovich Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; ; ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovovich (), is an American actress and former fashion model. Her starring roles in numerous science fiction film, science-fiction and action films led th ...

and Vidal himself, was his entry at the 2005

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, when he and

Giuseppe Penone Giuseppe Penone (born 3 April 1947, Garessio) is an Italian artist and sculptor, known for his large-scale sculptures of trees. He is interested in the link between man and the natural world.

represented

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The film was also screened as part of the 2006

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

. In 2007 Vezzoli was again included in the

in the Italian pavilion with his video piece ''DEMOCRAZY'' starring

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress and film producer. Known for primarily playing femmes fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the ...

and the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy as a pair of U.S. presidential candidates. That same year, he staged

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

's ''Right You Are (If You Think You Are)'' at the

, starring

Abigail Breslin Abigail Breslin (born April 14, 1996) is an American actress. Following a string of film parts as a young child, she rose to prominence at age 10 after playing Olive Hoover in ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006), for which Breslin received a nomin ...

Cate Blanchett Catherine Élise Blanchett ( ; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor and producer. Regarded as one of the best performers of her generation, she is recognised for Cate Blanchett on screen and stage, her versatile work across stage and scre ...

and

Dianne Wiest Dianne Evelyn Wiest (; born March 28, 1948) is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's ''Hannah and Her Sisters'' and 1994's '' Bullets Over Broadway'' (both directed by Woody Allen), one Gold ...

. On 14 November 2009 Vezzoli organised a performance where

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...

performed her song Speechless on a pink

Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Henry E. Steinway, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth le ...

piano decorated with painted-on butterflies while ballet dancers from the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈat(ə)r, t=Grand Theater) is a historic opera house in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové. Before the October Revolutio ...

, danced alongside.

Influences

In his work, Vezzoli is often compared to

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror- finish s ...

Ashley Bickerton Ashley Bickerton (May 26, 1959 – November 30, 2022) was a Barbadian-born American contemporary artist. A mixed-media artist, Bickerton often combined photographic and painterly elements with industrial and found object assemblages. He is assoc ...

Cindy Sherman Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters. Her breakthrough work is often co ...

and

Haim Steinbach Haim Steinbach (; born 1944 in Rehovot, Mandatory Palestine) is an Israeli-American artist, based in New York City. His work consists of arrangements of everyday objects, presented in “Displays” and shelves of his own making. Life and work Si ...

Controversy

On 25 November 2013 "The Church of Vezzoli" at

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 2201 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

in New York, one section of his three part retrospective "The Trinity", was cancelled after the church he arranged to buy in the town of

Montegiordano Montegiordano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of ...

for deployment in the exhibition is remanded in Italy prior to its leaving the country for the United States.Ted Loos and Gaia Pianigiani (November 25, 2013)
Not So Fast: Italian Church Is Halted on Its Way to PS1
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

Exhibitions

Vezzoli's work has been exhibited at many institutions including Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2002); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2004 and 2005); Museu Serralves, Porto (2005); Le Consortium, Dijon (2006);

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, London (2006);

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

, Stockholm (2009–2010); Kunsthalle Wien (2009); the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2010); and the MAXXI – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome (2013). His work has also been included in major group exhibitions like the Istanbul Bienali (1999),

Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Since its launch in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 380 new artworks and presented work by over 530 artists from around the world. ...

(2002),

São Paulo Bienal SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Y ...

(2004),

(2006), Performa 07 and Performa 15. The

Almine Rech Almine Rech Ruiz-Picasso ( Rech) is a French art dealer and owner of the eponymous contemporary art gallery. The gallery has exhibition spaces in Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai, Gstaad and Monaco. The gallery opened in 1997 in Paris. E ...

gallery devoted two exhibitions to the artist : ''Francesco Vezzoli'' in Paris (2018) and ''Francesco Vezzoli's Eternal Kiss'' in London (2015)

Filmography

*''Democrazy'' (2007) *''

Amália Traïda ''Amália Traïda'' () is a 2004 Italian black-and-white short film directed by Francesco Vezzoli and starring Lauren Bacall and Sônia Braga. Plot The movie is a biopic about Portuguese fadista (fado singer) and actress Amália Rodrigues. Ca ...

'' (2004)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vezzoli, Francesco 1971 births Italian contemporary artists Living people People from Brescia Italian conceptual artists