ANDREA MASTROVITO

Bergamo, 1978



 

Opening Saturday, 15 November at 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday - Saturday: 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. / 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

GMR, Palazzo Palumbo Fossati, San Marco 2597 Venice

Galleria Michela Rizzo is pleased to present Quando il cielo finisce (When the Sky Ends), Andrea Mastrovito's second solo exhibition. The exhibition inaugurates the new spaces of Palazzo Palumbo Fossati in Venice, marking a moment of renewal and continuity in the gallery's history.

With this new project, Mastrovito pays tribute to the historical artists who have contributed to the history of the Michela Rizzo Gallery, reinterpreting their works and intertwining them with his own visual imagery. The starting point is the exhibition La diseducazione al reale (2021), which inaugurated the collaboration with the gallery and laid the foundations for a reflection on drawing as a layered language and a device for rewriting reality.
In Quando il cielo finisce (When the Sky Ends), the artist develops a choral narrative in which engraving, inlay, painting, pastel drawing and frottage overlap in a web of images, materials and meanings. The title itself represents a poetic paradox: the sky, a symbol of infinity, is in reality a physical boundary, a threshold that separates our perception from space. Mastrovito moves on this threshold, constructing a dialogue between the masters of the past and the youth of the present, between heritage and possibility.

The works of Vito Acconci, Hamish Fulton, Lawrence Carroll, Fabio Mauri, Maurizio Pellegrin, Roman Opalka, Nanni Balestrini and Antoni Muntadas emerge as foundational presences, united by a reflection on limits, resistance and perseverance. Mastrovito uses them as a basis for comparison, creating a new iconographic landscape in which childhood, adolescence and the formation of the individual take centre stage: figures who play, fight, rebel and learn, giving shape to an imaginary world that is both poetic and political.

Among the works on display, La crociata dei bambini (The Children's Crusade) stands out, in dialogue with Fabio Mauri's Muro Occidentale o del Pianto (Western Wall or Wall of Tears), The Frontline is Everywhere, inspired by Maurizio Pellegrin's Alcuni (Some), and Non vogliamo niente (We Want Nothing), where child figures move among Nanni Balestrini's typographic collages. In these compositions, drawing and inlay merge in a play of iconographic and semantic planes that dissolves the boundaries between languages.

The exhibition continues with a series of frottages/collages that reinterpret images of commemorative flowers, transforming mourning into gesture, in dialogue with the works of Fulton, Balestrini, Opalka and Carroll. In the last room, small blackboards with abacuses depict scenes of urban guerrilla warfare: figures taking shelter behind books, catalogues and historical texts from the gallery – from Nanni Balestrini's Vogliamo Tutto to Antoni Muntadas' Ladies and Gentlemen – in an act of resistance and remembrance.

Through this body of unpublished works, Mastrovito pays homage to the history of the Michela Rizzo Gallery, but also reflects on our times: a sky that, even as it ends, offers a glimpse of new possibilities for vision.

Andrea Mastrovito (Bergamo, 1978), artist, director and author, trained in Italy, receiving a MFA from Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti in Bergamo, and lives between Bergamo and New York. His path focuses on drawing, alternating studio work with installation and performance interventions.

In 2007 he won the New York Prize, In 2011 he's been the first artist to have a solo show at Museo del Novecento in Milan.
His works have also been included in many public exhibition all across Europe and United States - MAXXI National Museum of the 21st century and Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; Pecci, Prato; MART, Rovereto; Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester; B.P.S. 22, Charleroi, Belgium; M.A.D., New York.
He held public talks at Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Naba, Accademia di Brera, Museo Pecci and Spazio Oberdan in Milan, Palazzo Forti in Verona, American Academy in Rome, Museum Nitsch in Naples, Pavillon Blanc in Colomiers, Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, ISCP and Italian Academy at Columbia University in New York.
He's been commissioned for many public installations and his works have been acquired by dozens of public and private collections in Italy, Europe and U.S.A.
in 2012 the Moroso Prize, in 2016 the Ermanno Casoli Prize, in 2019 the Italian Council and in 2022 he won the PAC - Piano per l'Arte Contemporanea, awarded by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, with Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este, Rome.

 

Solo exhibitions include Andrea Mastrovito/Romeo Castellucci - Res gestae, curated by Nicolas Martino, Palazzo Braschi, Rome in 2024, Yo lo vi, Espacio Proa21 - Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires in 2022, La Diseducazione al Reale, curated by Alberto Fiz at Galleria Michela Rizzo in Venice, Strange Days at Laznia Center in Gdansk, (2021), Io Non Sono Leggenda, curated by Davide Dall'Ombra, Museo del Novecento e del Contemporaneo at Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia (2020); Le Monde Est Une Invention sans Futur, Fondation Bullukian and 15th Lyon Biennial and Very Bad Things, curated by Massimo Mininni, at La Galleria Nazionale in Rome (2019); Symphony of a Century, Kunsthalle, Osnabruck (2018); Here the Dreamers Sleep, Museo Andersen, Rome (2015); At the End of the Line, GAMEC, Bergamo (2014) and Le Cinque Giornate, Museo del Novecento, Milan (2011). His work as a director includes the two films NYsferatu - Symphny of a Century (2017) and I Am Not Legend (2020).

 

Recent solo shows include Yo Lo Vi (Proa21, Buenos Aires, 2022); Strange Days (Laznia Center, Gdansk, 2021); I Am Not Legend (Museo di Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia, 2020); Very Bad Things (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, 2019); Le Monde est Une Invention sans Futur (Fondation Bullukian, Lyon, 2019); At the end of the line (GAMeC, Bergamo, 2014).

In 2017 he made his directorial debut with the animated feature film NYsferatu - Symphony of a Century, followed by the sequel, I Am Not Legend, in 2020.

In 2021, he founded The Drawing Hall in Bergamo, of which he is the artistic director.

In 2023, he participated in various prestigious events. In particular, he exhibited his works in L'arte è WOW!, curated by Marco Bazzini and Diva Moriani at the Milan Triennale, and in May Be Closer (II) at the Wilde Gallery in Basel. But also in exhibitions such as Io Sono Confine/I Am Border, curated by Pierre Dupont and Anna Daneri at Palazzo Grillo in Genoa, and Artificialia et Mirabilia, curated by Andrea Bruciati at Villa d'Este in Tivoli. Mastrovito's artistic reach extended to international platforms with Annotazioni Video, curated by Stefano Romano at the Italian Cultural Institute in Tirana, and participation in the Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin. His art also decorated the walls of Palazzo Lucarini in Trevi in the U.N.A. exhibition

In 2024, two important permanent exhibitions Mt 25,40 at the Sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Guardia in Tortona (AL) and Tristes presentimientos de lo que ha de acontecer, at GAMeC in Bergamo, were inaugurated.

His work has been included in numerous institutions in Europe and the United States, including the Museum of Art and Design, New York; MAXXI Museo delle Arti del XXI secolo, Rome; MACRO, Rome; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester; B.P.S. 22, Charleroi; Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne; MUDAM, Luxembourg; Belvedere 21, Vienna; Magazzino Italian Art, Cold Spring NY., at MART, Rovereto; Centro Pecci, Prato; Belvedere 21, Vienna; MUDAC, Lausanne; MUDAM, Luxembourg; Queens Museum, Museum of Arts and Design, New York; The Drawing Center.