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Francesco Vezzoli

Francesco Vezzoli, Gioventú Bruciata (Natalie Wood, Santa Catalina Island, California), 2014 Inkjet print on canvas with metallic embroidery in star-shaped frame, 54 ⅞ × 57 ¾ inches (139.4 × 146.7 cm)

Francesco Vezzoli, Gioventú Bruciata (Natalie Wood, Santa Catalina Island, California), 2014

Inkjet print on canvas with metallic embroidery in star-shaped frame, 54 ⅞ × 57 ¾ inches (139.4 × 146.7 cm)

Francesco Vezzoli, Pokerface (Self portrait with Mother Gaga—After de Chirico), 2009 Inkjet print on canvas, cotton and metallic embroidery, custom jewelry, 32 ¼ × 28 ⅛ inches framed (81.9 × 71.4 cm)

Francesco Vezzoli, Pokerface (Self portrait with Mother Gaga—After de Chirico), 2009

Inkjet print on canvas, cotton and metallic embroidery, custom jewelry, 32 ¼ × 28 ⅛ inches framed (81.9 × 71.4 cm)

Francesco Vezzoli, Chaerea Killed Caligula (Paolo Bonacelli), 2005 Oil on canvas with metallic embroidery in artist's frame, 20 ½ × 15 11/16 inches (52 × 40 cm)

Francesco Vezzoli, Chaerea Killed Caligula (Paolo Bonacelli), 2005

Oil on canvas with metallic embroidery in artist's frame, 20 ½ × 15 11/16 inches (52 × 40 cm)

About

Francesco Vezzoli’s work explores power of contemporary popular culture. By closely emulating formats of various media, such as advertising and film, he addresses ongoing preoccupations with the fundamental ambiguity of truth, the seductive power of language, and the instability of the human persona. These include a trailer for a remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula (2005), starring Vidal himself, Helen Mirren, and Courtney Love; an advertising campaign directed by Roman Polanski for Greed, a fictitious perfume; and elaborate, site–specific performances inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luigi Pirandello, and Salvador Dalí that have featured superstars like Catherine Deneuve, Cate Blanchett, and Lady Gaga. Though Vezzoli employs a diverse and varying array of media, needlepoint as remained a signature technique from the outset of his career. Initially emulating famous actors who practiced needlepoint on and off–screen—from Vicente Minelli to Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, and Greta Garbo—as time went on, it became a more profound and contemplative activity which he referred to as a world of feelings, crises, obsessions and depressions historically unified with the craft.

Francesco Vezzoli was born in 1971 in Brescia, Italy. He received his B.A. in 1995 from Central St. Martin’s School of Art, London. His work has been exhibited at many institutions including The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2002); Museo Contemporania Castello di Rivoli, Italy (2002); “Comizi di Non Amore (Non–Love Meetings),” Fondazione Prada, Milan (2004); Serralves Museum, Portugal (2005); Fondazione Cini, Italy (2005); Fondazione Prada, Italy (2005); Le Consortium, France (2006); Tate Modern, London (2006); The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2007); Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2010); Qatar Museums Authority, Doha (2013); MOCA, Los Angeles (2014); Museo Bardini, Museo di Casa Martelli and Museo Bellini, Florence (2014); MoMA PS1, New York (2014); Museo Museion, Italy (2016); and Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco (2016).

Vezzoli currently lives and works in Milan, Italy.

Museum Exhibitions

Tom Wesselmann, Smoker #3 (3-D), 2003 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York

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LOVE
L’arte contemporanea incontra l’amore

March 17–July 23, 2017
Società per la Belle Arti Esposizione Permanente, Milan
www.lapermanente.it

For LOVE. L’arte contemporanea incontra l’amore, curator Danilo Eccher chose thirty-nine works by artists including Francesco Vezzoli, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann that depict love from their point of view. Visitors are invited to leave their testimony regarding the exhibition, creating a group recollection that will grow day by day.

Tom Wesselmann, Smoker #3 (3-D), 2003 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York

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