Giovanni Anselmo

Giovanni Anselmo (1934 - 2023) was born in Borgofranco d'Ivrea, Italy. He lived and worked in Turin. Considered to be one of the key protagonists of the Arte Povera movement at the end of the 1960s, Anselmo continued to pursue and explore his practice in relation to nature, the finite and the indefinite, the visible and the invisible. He saw his work as a living body, which seems still but breathes and transforms itself, and he often made new versions of older pieces. 

Giovanni Anselmo's first one-man show was at the Galleria Sperone in Milan in 1968. Since then he has had solo exhibitions around the world, including at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, Italy (2018); the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy (2017); Castello di Rivoli, Torino (2016); Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2013); Stedelijk Museum, Gent (2005); Museum Kurhaus Kleve (2004); the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2002) and the Renaissance Society, Chicago (1997). He participated in the Venice Biennales of 1978, 1980 and 1990 and Documenta V (1972) and VII (1982).

In 1990 he recieved the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale in 1990. He recently received the Presidente della Repubblica at the Accademia Nazionale di Sa Luca, Italy (2019).