LUCIO SALVATORE
B. 1975
Italy/Brazil
Lucio Salvatore lives and works in Rio de Janeiro and in Sant’Elia Fiumerapido, Italy. Salvatore’s work is seen as a critique of both centralized and decentralized powers and its abuses, social control, and consumerism in its broadest declination.
Salvatore is best known for his Black Square, Lineage, and Combustioni series. Each body of work is deeply conceptual, but can also be appreciated simply for their beauty.
Black Square is a series of artworks developed in stone quarries that, as often happens in Salvatore’s artworks, are the result of a combination of process appropriation, recording of experiences, sculpture, and painting. In Black Square, the artist meditates on the connection between the metaphysics of forms and the concreteness of human industry and considers the sustainability of creating new worlds. The process for creating Black Square is intrinsically tied to the process: In 2014 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Kazimir Malevich's iconic Black Square, Salvatore painted a black square on the walls of a stone quarry. Next, the artist extracted the painted pieces of the wall from the stone quarry. He then sewed the pieces on a canvas imprinted with the stone’s form and the result was a powerful creation with an internal dialectic tension between unity and multiplicity, matter, and immateriality.
Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of Modern Art (MAM), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Lineage, Space Gallery St Barth, Online
2020 Combustioni, Martha Pagy Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2019 Combustioni, Galeria Rabieh, Sāo Paulo, Brazil
2019 Black Square, Space Gallery St Barth, New York City, NY
2019 Linee, Martha Pagy Gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2018 Metaelementi, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2018 Controvalori, Martha Pagy gallery, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2017 Parque Lage, Palazzo Pamphilj, Roma, Italy
2016 Arte Capital, Centro Cultural Correios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2015 Fragmento, Centro Cultural Correios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014 Redução Espacial, Centro Cultural Correios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2011 Blood, Museu Brasileiro de Escultura, São Paulo, Brazil
2010 Blood, Centro Cultural Correios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2010 Eros = Physis, Galeria Arte em Dobro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2009 Hic Habitat Felicitas, Openhouse Gallery, New York City, NY
2008 Fattore Estrinseco, Superstudio, Milan, Italy
2008 Transitorieta’ Della Materia, Teatro Romano, Cassino, Italy
2008 Inserzione Ambientale, Jardim Botanico, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2007 Untitled, Grant Gallery, New York City, NY
2005 Untitled, Potzdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibitions
2018 Videoarte agora videoarte, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2015 Quinta Mostra, EAV Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014 Coletiva 2014, EAV Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2011 Single Fare, Sloan Fine Art, New York City, NY
2009 Visonnaire, Fuorisalone, Milan, Italy
Press & Publications
2019 Lucio Salvatore: Black Square, Livein Style, 17 October 2019
2018 Artista plástico Lucio Salvatore "dá o sangue" por suas obras, Globoplay,16 July 2018
Italiano Lucio Salvatore faz exposição inédita no MAM Rio, Jornal do Brasil, 26 June 2018
Artisti italiani nel mondo. Rio De Janeiro celebra Lucio Salvatore e la sua “Riduzione spaziale”. Ospite anche di Jo Soares, il Letterman dell’America Latina, l’artista si racconta ad Artribune, Artribune, 26 June 2018
2017 Arte ao cubo: MAM abriga exposições de Yutaka Toyota, Christopher Page e Lucio Salvatore, O Globo, 15 December 2017
Lucio Salvatore at Rome's Brazilian Embassy, Wanted in Rome,19 May 2017
2015 Lucio Salvatore abre exposição e circuito externo de obras no Rio, RG, 09 January 2015
2014 Lucio Salvatore Inaugura Expo No RJ, Harper's Bazaar, 29 January 2014
Lucio Salvatore: Mostra @RJ, RG, 01 January 2014
2011 Retratos feitos com sangue serão expostos no MuBE, Rolling Stone, 27 February 2011
2008 Superstudio Industria ospiterà a Milano Lucio Salvatore, Exibart, 21 November 2008