Francesco De Grandi

Palermo, 1968. Based in Palermo

Francesco De Grandi finds in the archetypal motifs of the history of painting a path of knowledge and a way to spiritual elevation, in an almost meditative form of painting.
Narrative, figurative, romantic, evocative, De Grandi's painting, between the study of nature and the feeling of the sacred, highlights the mature awareness of a painting in continuous dialogue with tradition, but which allows itself to be penetrated by contemporary tremors, resulting in an iconographic revisitation where everything is mixed and sometimes overturned.
A tribute to the immense human audience that inhabits the stage of the world every day, from mythological tales to the crude current chronicle.

A graduate of the Palermo Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to Milan in 1994, where he remained until 2008. He was based in Shanghai from 2009 to 2012 before deciding to return to Palermo, which has proven the most fitting place to continue his practice. From 1992 onward he has participated in group and solo exhibitions in public spaces, museums and private galleries in Italy and abroad.
He has been among the artists represented by RizzutoGallery since 2015. He lives and works in Palermo, where he teaches Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Nella debolezza, dalle tenebre alla luce - Crocifissione di Urbino, Chiesa di San Francesco, Urbino, 2023. Vago Fiore, Ex Chiesa degli Almadiani, Viterbo, 2020. Aurea Hora, Fondazione Sicilia Pinacoteca di Villa Zito, Palermo, 2019; Come Creatura, RizzutoGallery, Manifesta 12 CollateralEvent, Palermo, 2018; FragmentedesUnbekennten, GartenpavillonMalkasten, Dusseldorf, 2016; Archetipi della pittura inquieta, Convento del Carmine, Marsala, 2014; Il Passaggio Difficile, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palermo, 2011.

Among his group exhibitions: Giorni Felici? quello che accade, quello che può accadere, Fondazione Merz, ZACentrale, Palermo; Giovanni Bellini, Il Compianto dai Musei Vaticani, Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini di Milano; interACTION NAPOLI 2024, Made in Cloister Foundation; Pittura italiana oggi, Triennale di Milano; Artificialia et Mirabilia,Villa d’Este, Tivoli; Medea, Antico Mercato di Siracusa, 2023; Camera Picta, Galleria Civica, Castello del Buonconsiglio, Mart, Trento, 2021; Foresta Urbana, Museo Riso Palermo, 2019; La Scuola di Palermo, Museo Riso Palermo, 2018, 54° Biennale di Venezia, Padiglione Italia, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venezia.

His works are found in private and public Collections including: Palazzo Riso, Museo Regionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Palermo; Collezione Farnesina Experimenta, istituita dal Ministero degli Esteri, Palazzo della Farnesina, Roma; Musei Villa Adriana e Villa d’Este, Tivoli, Roma; HangART7, Red Bull Hangar collection, Salisburgo – Austria; Museo Civico, Pinacoteca Comunale, Marsala, Trapani; Museo Civico di Castelbuono, Castelbuono, Palermo; Museo del Novecento, Collezione Bertolini, Milano; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Palermo; Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea di Monfalcone, Gorizia; Museo d’arte contemporanea collegio dei gesuiti, Alcamo, Trapani; Museo d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea Repubblica di San Marino.