LUIGI ONTANI

LUIGI ONTANI
Brief Biography
Born in 1943 in Vergato, Bologna, Luigi Ontani moved to Rome in 1970. Recognized as a major
figure in the experimentation and development of different languages in contemporary artistic
practice, Luigi Ontani has worked in video, performance and photography, as well as painting,
sculpture and ceramics.
Luigi Ontani has been invited five times to the Venice Biennale and has exhibited at the
Guggenheim Museum, Villa Stuck Museum in Munich, Kunstverein Frankfurt and at Groningen
Museum as well as in New Delhi, Korea and Thailand. In 2001, P.S. 1 held a retrospective of his
career, as did SMAK Museum in 2004.
In Italy Ontani’s work can be seen in many public locations including the Scuderie del Quirinale
in Rome, Villa Medici, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna and Palazzo delle Esposizioni; in
public museums in Bologna, Milan and Naples.
Selected Exhibitions
Recent Solo shows:
2007
AnamorPoses, Bortolami Gallery, New York
MarmArmonia, Claudia Gian Ferrari, Milan
Sculpture and Memory: Works from the Gardner and by Luigi Ontani, Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, Boston
2006
VetriEtereiEterocliti: Three Recent Works by Luigi Ontani, Peggy Guggenheim
Collection, Venice
GANESHAMUSA, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza
2004/2005
EROS DEI EROI, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill Roma, Rome
2003/2004
Genthara, SMAK Museum, Gand, Belgium
2003
Le Martire de San Sebastien, Kunsthalle, Wien
2002
AlnusThaiAurea, Bangkok, Thailand
2001
GaneshamUSA 1965 – 2001, PS1, New York
Recent Group shows:
2010
Re-Dressing, Bortolami Gallery, New York
2007
In Pubblico: Azioni e idee degli anni ’70 in Italia, Museo di Villa Croce, Genova
2005
The Giving Person: Il Dono dell'artista, PAN, Museum in Naples
Quadriennale di Roma, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome
Il Bello e le Bestie, MART – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e
Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy
2004
Ori d’artista: Il Gioiello nell’arte Italiana 1900-2004, Museo del Corso, Rome
ICONICA: Arte Contemporanea e Archeologia in Sicilia, travelling exhibition among the
Sicily’s archeological sites, Italy
Luna/Moon…, ARCOS – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Sannio, Benevento, Italy
OPENASIA. L’Oriente Incontra l’Occidente, Venice
2000
Partage d’Exotisme, Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France
Recent publications and articles:
N. Cullinan, Luigi Ontani, in Frieze, April 2005
P. Ferri, Luigi Ontani, in Flash Art, February/March 2005
C. Lauf, Luigi Ontani at Lorcan O’Neill, in Art in America, February 2005
C. Corbetta, Performer of art, in Vogue Uomo, November 2004
LUIGI ONTANI. Ontanelegia, curated by Alessandra Galasso, Archivi di Arte Contemporanea.
Edizioni Umberto Allemandi & C., 2004
Luigi Ontani, catalogue of the exhibition in Kunstverein in Frankfurt and Villa Stuck Museum in
Munich, curated by Peter Weiermair, Edition Stemmle, 1996
Prizes
Il sogno di Piero, Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino, Novembre 2004
I Premio Cortina, 2000
Premio Furla, Fondazione Querini Stampalia – Venezia, Committee for the prize 2005
New York PS1, Committee for the prize 2001