Omar Galliani, Daphni, 2000, Serigraph

Omar Galliani

"Daphni" Hand-retouched silkscreen print on canvas.

63x93 cm.

Signed and numbered by hand by the artist on the front

N.of 90 ex.

Unframed
Complete with Certificate of authenticity and provenance.


BIOGRAPHY:

Omar Galliani was born in 1954 in Montecchio Emilia, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and is professor of Painting at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. In 1979, invited by Luciano Francalanci for the Italy section, he received the Faber Castell Prize at the I Triennale Internazionale del disegno at the Kunsthalle in Nuremberg. In 1982 he joined the Magico Primario movement and in 1984 the Anachronismo movement, centered on a return to the Italian figurative tradition for an art in time and simultaneously outside of it. His works are featured at the Venice Biennale in 1982, 1984 and 1986, the São Paulo Biennials in Brazil and Paris, contemporary art museums in Japan and the Bradford Biennale 7th British International Print (1982). In 1991 he made the third curtain for the historic Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, and in 1995 he was invited to the exhibition Tutte le strade portano a Roma in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. He exhibited at the XXII Quadriennale in Rome, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, with the acquisition of his work Ballerina from the Chamber of Deputies (1996).

At the end of 2002 he exhibited at Agata Basile's Galleria La Murzia, a series of works accompanied by a recited reading by Remo Girone and Vittoria Zinny, on a text by playwright Aurelio Pes.

His works participate in prestigious exhibitions around the world and are included in the permanent collections of important museums, such as the GAM in Turin (Landscape of My Poisons, 2014), and the NAMOC in Beijing (Far from Xian, 2016) along with works by Dalí and Picasso. In 2018 Galliani donated one of his self-portraits to the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, the work was exhibited at the Vasari Auditorium and presented to the public by director Eike Schmidt before becoming part of the celebrated collection.

In January 2019, A Pencil? Omar Galliani, a documentary film (running 81 minutes) about the artist, with his participation, directed by Fulvio Wetzl and shown as a national premiere at the Cristallo cinema in Reggio Emilia.

Galliani's works are mainly monumental drawings executed in graphite, sometimes with the addition of the color red. The technique is based on the use of graphite or charcoal on white or light-colored materials, and then drawing skilful lines and chiaroscuro on them, even resorting to the spolvero technique, reminiscent of the Renaissance artistic tradition. Lights and shadows are in constant dialogue, intense and suffused blacks evoke and dematerialize the depictions, sometimes embellished with sanguine symbols with anatomical, vegetal and religious references: a reflection on art and its silent and meaningful languages.

His quest for Beauty makes use of a highly refined drawing and a personal technique in which even the grain of wooden boards can join the symphony of the mysterious and seductive world that hovers in his works. Galliani often depicts female figures and faces, in the timeless dualism between darkness and light, with a style rooted in the Italian figurative tradition, while being innovative and contemporary.