Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni
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Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni (born:Rome, 19 November 1967) is an Italian-born magic realism artist specializing in fantasy painting
[edit] Biography
Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni was born in Rome on November 12, 1967, into a family of artists from Tuscany. Besides his father Riccardo, the family’s artistic connection includes grandfather Leone, uncle Marcello (both talented painters and sculptors) and sister Elena, a painter with whom Ferroni held joint exhibitions early on in his career.
He showed a marked inclination for drawing since early childhood, frequenting his father’s atelier form the age of eleven and taking lessons in drawing from his uncle Marcello during the summers in the latter’s sculpture studio at Pietrasanta.
He made his first painting at the age of sixteen, but his career as a painter started after he finished high school in 1986 when he joined his father’s atelier and studied Literature and History of Art at the Rome University ‘La Sapienza’.
Both are still a source of great inspiration in his paintings today.
By working in his father's atelier he was taught in much the same way as his ancestor's were during the Baroque periode.
His paintings create a beautiful fantasy world that is inhabited by all kinds of mythological, historical and contemporary creatures.
While Tommasi's style and choice of subjects is influenced by the style of his ancestors, contemporary icons intrigue him as well. He knows how to unite a classical style and subjects and contemporary analytical perspective in an ironic and fantastic way.
Ferroni is a painter in the classical meaning of the word. His work bears testimony of an admiration for the Renaissance art and a feel for monumentality.
Buildings, events and mythological and historical figures form the starting point of the imagination of the artist. Sometimes historical locations lead to a painting, like the old church of San Marco in Venice where – remarkable element in a number of paintings of the artist – a luxurious modern motor cruiser is moored.
This contradiction of image in time (anachronism) can also be found in other paintings of Ferroni and gives the work a magical-realistic quality.
The narrative character in his work is prominent.
Because of the anachronistically known fact in many of his paintings, the viewer is given a certain feeling of alienation.
A trip trough time from which the connection with the present will not be lost.
[edit] Exhibitions
- 1989 Galleria AMG, Alassio (Italy)
- 1991 Galleria Il Gabbiano, Rome (Italy)
- 1995 Galleria L´Indicatore, Rome
- 1997 Group exhibition European Figurative Art Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 1997 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 1997 Galleria Il Gabbiano, Rome
- 1998 Steltman Galleries, New York
- 1998 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 2000 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 2002 Museo Sandro Parmeggiani, Ferrara (Italy)
- 2002 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 2003 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 2004 Galerie Il Tempietto, Brindisi
- 2005 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
- 2006 February - March, Jan van der Togt Museum, Amstelveen
- 2006 April, Gallery Davico, Torino
- 2007 Museo Sandro Parmeggiani, Ferrara (Italy)
- 2007 Tecna, Milaan (Italy)
- 2007 Palazzo Antinori 'Per ... Bacco', Florence (Italy)
- 2007 Censa (Italy)
- 2007 August, Mongolia
- 2007 Steltman Galleries, Amsterdam
