RICCARDO GUARNERI

Florence, 1933



Galleria Michela Rizzo is pleased to present Venezia, an exhibition that brings together Riccardo Guarneri and Virgilio Guidi, opening on Saturday, January 18th at 12:00.

Between Silence and Light
"In the midday hour, reality is immense; the light descends from the height of the sky and illuminates all things impartially; they then live in an extreme purity and clarity, responsible for their formal and coloristic aspects, yet embraced in a single, unique sigh."
In this quote from Virgilio Guidi, dating back to 1964, lies the essence of his entire painting. The dialogue between Riccardo Guarneri and Virgilio Guidi thus reveals the midday demon of a parallel search that opens towards a total light, imbuing the painting with an illusory atmosphere—an expansive spatiality that unveils the trajectories of lived experience through the mark, for a quotidianity that is both still and dynamic at the same time.
In the light-space of their work, the lyrical solutions are all contained within that 'indirect' gleam underlying the image, imbued with a serene, uniform clarity that reveals the absolute poetics of these two artists.
Venezia presents a selection of works by Riccardo Guarneri – from the 1990s to the present – alongside some works by Virgilio Guidi from the period between 1947 and 1960, in dialogue with each other on the theme of space and light.
Venezia, in its persistence of light, remains the restless muse of these two artists within a journey that severs the space between stone, water, and the enduring clarity of a sophisticated luminosity.

Riccardo Guarneri (Florence, 1933), after attending the Scuola Libera del Nudo, began painting in his twenties alongside a musical activity. He taught painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, Bari, Venice, and Florence, and is an Emeritus Academician of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence. He began with figurative painting, then in the 1950s approached Informalism.

 

In 1959 he went to Düsseldorf, where he met Otto Piene, Peter Brüning, Raimond Girke, and Winfried Gaul, finding in northern Germany a lively laboratory of experimentation. In 1962 he began studying color as light, writing as painting, and perceptual aspects. Starting in 1964, he developed a rigorous geometric language based on rhombuses and squares in subtle asymmetry, integrating sign, light, and color into a poetic unicum.

He was invited to the 33rd Venice Biennale (1966) – exhibiting in the same room as Bonalumi and Scheggi – and took part in the exhibition Weiss auf Weiss at the Kunsthalle in Bern. In 1967, he participated in the 5th Paris Biennale and the exhibitions of New Tendencies. In 2017, Christine Macel invited him to the 57th Venice Biennale (Viva Arte Viva). In 2018, he was invited to the group show 100% Italia at the Ettore Fico Museum in Turin and held solo exhibitions at Palazzo Sarcinelli (Conegliano) and at Gallery Rosenfeld in London, where he continues to exhibit in solo and group shows. Also in 2019, Gallery Rosenfeld presented his works at Art Brussels and Frieze New York; the Museo del Novecento in Milan included one of his works in its new exhibition path; the Museo del Novecento in Florence dedicated a solo exhibition to him.

 

In 2021, four of his works were acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 2022, he participated in the group exhibition Genova Sessanta at the Musei di Palazzo Reale. In 2023, he exhibited in the solo show Guarneri – Hemmes. Illusione e vibrazione personale at the Museo Piaggio in Pontedera, alongside Hemmes; he also took part in group exhibitions at the Museo della Città in Livorno, Villa Croce in Genoa, and at the Abbey of Montecassino.

Since 2016, Galleria Michela Rizzo has collaborated with Guarneri: in 2016, it hosted the solo exhibition Leggerissima e insieme forte on the island of Giudecca (catalogued by Il Canneto), followed by his participation in group shows: Due o Tre Dimensioni Infinite (2018, curated by Davide Ferri), Soglie e limiti (2019, curated by Elena Forin), Assembramenti (2020), and Antonio Calderara, Riccardo Guarneri, Saverio Rampin (2022, Mestre).
At the beginning of 2025, the Gallery presents the dual solo exhibition Riccardo Guarneri with Virgilio Guidi (January 18 – March 12) at the Giudecca venue, exploring the dialogue between space and light between the two artists.

 

Among recent exhibitions: Venice, dual solo show with Virgilio Guidi, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Giudecca (January 18 – March 12, 2025), curated by Stefano Cecchetto. di Tracce e di Luce, Galleria La Fonderia, Florence (May 11 – June 15, 2024), a dialogue between Guarneri, Rapetti Mogol, and Cigni. La Poetica della luce, solo show at Galleria Lombardi, Rome (October 19 – November 9, 2024), with a catalogue curated by Alberto Dambruoso and fifteen works created in the last decade. Within and Beyond – Looking into the Infinite, Gallery Rosenfeld, Lugano (2024). Genova Sessanta, Palazzo Reale Museum, Genoa (2022). Illusione Vibrazione, Auditorium Museo Piaggio, Pontedera (2024).