LORENZO PUGLISI

Lorenzo Puglisi, born in 1971, is an Italian artist who lives and works in Bologna. Following his high school graduation, Puglisi traveled throughout Europe to engage directly with the works of the great masters who influence him, such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, and Leonardo da Vinci. His work draws from the visual language of classical painting, at first focusing on the recurring subject of the human head and later on that of the portrait, extracting timeless human gestures and emotions. In recent years, Puglisi has focused his practice on large format canvases related to great masterpieces of the past. His powerful, mysterious figures emerge from absolute darkness on the canvas. The brushstrokes, in shades of white and red, simulate streams of light that define volumes, faces, and body parts, hinting at an expression or a gesture and evoking the essence of historical paintings.

Puglisi has an extensive and distinguished exhibition history marked by site-specific installations in culturally significant and often sacred spaces with ties to the historical masters that influence him. In 2019, on the occasion of his solo exhibition Il Grande Sacrificio in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Puglisi exhibited a nearly 20-foot-long oil painting on wood depicting his vision of The Last Supper to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death. His work was exhibited in the same room as da Vinci's original masterpiece. His work has also been shown at the Basicila of Santo Spirito in Florence and the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, where he dialogued with Caravaggio’s Seven Acts of Mercy. In 2022, he participated in the 59th Venice Biennale with Viaggio al termine della notte, exhibited in the Syrian-Arab Pavilion. Outside of Italy, Puglisi’s work has appeared in the crypt of King’s Cross Saint Pancras Church in London and in a solo exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga. Puglisi’s self-portrait recently entered the permanent collection of Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, at the request of museum director Eike Schmidt.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 Viaggio al termine della notte, curated by Emad Kashout, under the patronage of the Syrian Ministry of Culture, 59th Venice Biennale of Art, Pavilion of the Syrian Arab Republic, Venice, Italy
2022 Lorenzo Puglisi: La pittura e l’orizzonte degli eventi, curated by Marco Tonelli, Santo Ficara gallery, Florence, Italy
2022 Lorenzo Puglisi: Pittura nera, curated by Sandro Malossini, in the context of Art City Bologna, Legislative Assembly of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy
2022 Donation of Ritratto 270418 (Self-Portrait) to the Uffizi Galleries
2021 Natività in dialogue with Caravaggio, curated by Angelo Crespi, Cappella Rucellai, Museo Marino Marini, Florence
2020 Lorenzo Puglisi | Davanti a Michelangelo, Basilica di Santo Spirito, Florence, Italy, presentation by Vittorio Sgarbi
2020 L’immortalità, curated by Luca Beatrice, in collaboration with Artcom, Paratissima Art Station, ARTiglieria Contemporary Art Center, Turin, Italy 
2020 Kind of Black, curated by Domenico De Chirico, Galleria Bianchi Zardin, Milan Sparks of a Black fire, Moore House Building by Norman Foster, Londen, UK
2020 L’icona e lo splendore di Bisanzio, Spazio Eventi Orler, Marcon, Venice, Italy
2019 Pitture nel Buio, duo exhibition Lorenzo Puglisi and Riccardo Paternò Castello, Palazzo Borromeo, Milan, Italy
2019 Lorenzo Puglisi – Popolo e Memoria, curated by Luca Beatrice, Copernico Torino Garibaldi, Turin, Italy
2019 Shades from the Shadow, The Crypt Gallery in King’s Cross, London, UK text by Michele Bonuomo London in collaboration with Cris Contini Contemporary Gallery, London, UK
2019 Lorenzo Puglisi | Il Grande Sacrificio, Bramante’s Sacristy, Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan Lorenzo Puglisi | Pitture di Luce e Tenebra (Paintings of Light and Darkness), Biffi Arte Gallery, Piacenza, Italy
2019 Il Grande Sacrificio, Studio Guastalla Modern and Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy
2018 Lorenzo Puglisi per Mario Sironi: una sostituzione, curated by Mari Fratelli, Casa Boschi Di Stefano Museum, Milan, Italy
2019 Una discesa verso l’alto, Ipogeo Bacile, curated by Toti Carpentieri, Spongano / Lecce, Italy
2019 Lorenzo Puglisi | Scintille di un fuoco nero, curated by di Martina Cavallarin, Labs Gallery, Bologna, Italy
2019 In a Silent Way, Studio Guastalla Modern and Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy 
2019 La Misericordia, with poetry by Davide Rondoni, Chiesa di Santa Caterina, Bologna, Italy
2016 Lorenzo Puglisi | L’ignoto che appare, Il Milione Gallery, curated by Roberto Borghi, Milan, Italy
2016 Lorenzo Puglisi | New Paintings, Galerie Sobering, curated by Mark Gisbourne, Paris
2014 Lorenzo Puglisi, essay by Bruno Corà, Museo del Territorio, Biella
2013 Dimenticare il tempo, curated by Valerio Dehò, Il Milione Gallery, Milan, Italy
2013 Nero di fondo, introduction by Alberto Zanchetta, Palazzo Monferrato, Alessandria, Italy
2011 Presenze, Grossetti Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy
2009 Pitture, curated by Emanuele Beluffi, Obraz Gallery, Milan, Italy
2008 Lorenzo Puglisi, essay by Valerio Dehò, Piccola Galleria, Asolo Portraits, Palazzo Berva, Cassano d’Adda, Milan
2005 07−06−05, Palazzo della Provincia, Biella

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019 Looking for Monna Lisa. Misteri e ironie attorno alla piu’ celebre icona Pop, various venues, Pavia, Italy
2019 Preparing for Darkness, Vol. 4: True Romance, Kulhaus Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2018 Lorenzo Puglisi: Visioni di luce e tenebra (with Omar Galliani), curated by Maria Fratelli and Raffaella Resch, Church of San Sisto Museum, Milan, Italy
2017 Passion, Galerie im Park / The Historical Museum, curated by Uwe Goldenstein, Brema Nero su Nero: Da Fontana e Kounellis, Villa Bardini, curated by Vera Agosti, Florence, Italy
2017 La pelle dei pittori e il sangue dei poeti, Museo delle culture (MUDEC), Milan St-Art, Strasbourg art fair, Galerie Sobering, Strasbourg, France 
2016 Lorenzo Puglisi | Caravaggio, la verità nel buio (with Omar Galliani), curated by Raffaella Resch and Maria Savarese, Cappella dell’Incoronazione, Museo Riso, Palermo, Italy / Chiesa Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples, Italy
2015 Je me souvien: Mounir Fatmi, Jonathan Monk, Pierre Petit, Lorenzo Puglisi, Lawrence Weiner, Centre d’Art Contemporain La Traverse, Paris, France 
2015 Acqua è, Expo Milan, curated by Willy Montini, Milan, Italy
2014 Posterity is a Form of the Spectator, Galerie Sobering, Paris, France
2014 Lorenzo Puglisi | Villa Cusani Tittoni, Desio/Milan, essay by Bruno Corà and Valentina Casacchia
2013 Selected for the Artist Pension Trust, London, UK
2012 Lorenzo Puglisi: Zilli, l’Art de vivre (with Carlo Bernardini), Palazzo Bagatti Valsecchi, Milan, Italy
2012 Oltre l’attimo, Grossetti Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy
2011 1000+1000+1000, Palazzo Fava, Bologna, Italy
2008 Scenography for La spia, a drama by Giorgio Celli, Navile Theater, Bologna, Italy 
2005 L’arte e il silenzio, Oropa’s Sanctuary, Biella, Italy

SELECTED MONOGRAPHS AND CATALOGUES

Puglisi. Self-Portrait. Un autoritratto per le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Italian-English, curated by G. Sassoli de' Bianchi Strozzi and Mark Gisbourne, published by Prearo (2022) 
Lorenzo Puglisi, essay by Mark Gisbourne, Hatje Cantz, Berlin (2019)
Lorenzo Puglisi, text by Luca Beatrice, Prearo editions, Milan (2019)
La Luce oltre il Nero, text by Toti Carpentieri, Manfredi Edizioni, Bologna (2019)
Il Grande Sacrificio, text by G. Gazzaneo, Manfredi Edizioni, Bologna (2019)
Il Grande Sacrificio, exhibition catalog, Sacrestia del Bramante, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
Lorenzo Puglisi 15–18, Prearo Editore, Milan (2018) 
Lorenzo Puglisi | Caravaggio, la verità nel buio, essay by Mark Gisbourne, exhibition catalog, Cappella dell’Incoronazione, Museo Riso, Palermo / Chiesa del Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples (2016- 2017)
Lorenzo Puglisi: New Paintings, essay by Mark Gisbourne, exhibition catalog, Sobering Gallery, Paris (2016)
Lorenzo Puglisi, text by Bruno Corà, exh. cat. Museo del Territorio, Biella (2014)
Dimenticare il tempo, Bollettino della Galleria Il Milione, Milan (2013)