Gianfranco Meggiato: Artist Spotlight

  • Gianfranco Meggiato
  • Gianfranco Meggiato

    Gianfranco Meggiato

    Gianfranco Meggiato was born in Venice in 1963, where he attended the Istituto Statale d'Arte art college for five years, studying stone, bronze, wood and ceramic sculpture. At the invitation of the Municipality of Venice, he exhibited his works at a very young age in two exhibitions, in 1979 and 1984, at the "Galleria Comunale Bevilacqua La Masa" in St Mark's Square, Venice, where he showed sculptures in stone and semi-refractory material. Since 1998 Gianfranco Meggiato has participated without interruption in a long series of exhibitions, shows and fairs in Italy and abroad. In recent years, Gianfranco Meggiato has been invited to take part in the 54th and the 55th Venice Biennale, where he has exhibited among national participations.

     

    View Works

    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Quantica, 2022 Painted bronze D 60 cm D 23 5/8 in
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Quantica, 2022
      Painted bronze
      D 60 cm
      D 23 5/8 in
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Il Soffio della Vita, 2024 Aluminum magnesium casting, stainless steel, exterior paint. 200 x 64 x 64 cm 78 3/4 x 25 1/4 x 25 1/4 in 6
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Il Soffio della Vita, 2024
      Aluminum magnesium casting, stainless steel, exterior paint.
      200 x 64 x 64 cm
      78 3/4 x 25 1/4 x 25 1/4 in
      6
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Acquarius, 2019 Bronze 81 x 60 x 60 cm 31 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in Edition of 8
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Acquarius, 2019
      Bronze
      81 x 60 x 60 cm
      31 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
      Edition of 8
      Enquire
  •
  • Gianfranco Meggiato, Doppio Fuso, 2022
    Gianfranco Meggiato, Doppio Fuso, 2022
    Enquire

    Gianfranco Meggiato

    Space, in fact, enters Meggiato’s works and the void becomes as important as the full. The essential is invisible to the eyes: you cannot touch ideals, feelings, dreams, you can only live them.

    The artist models his sculptures taking inspiration from biomorphic tissue and the labyrinth, which symbolizes man’s tortuous path aimed at finding himself and revealing his own precious inner sphere.

     

    Meggiato thus invents the concept of “introsculpture” in which the observer’s gaze is drawn towards the interiority of the work, not limiting itself only to the external surfaces. “On a formal level, space and light do not border the work, they slide over it as if it were an object in the round, and penetrate its interior, wrapping lattices and tangles, reaching the point of illuminating the central sphere as the ideal point of arrival.”

     

    Since 1998, he has been invited to exhibit in museums, galleries, and public squares all over the world: USA, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Principality of Monaco, Ukraine, Russia, India, China, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Australia.

     

    He has also been invited to exhibit at the 54th and 55th VENICE BIENNALE in the national pavilions (2011-2013) and at MANIFESTA12 (2018).

     

    Since 2017, he has created large installations with social and educational themes, placing them in significant public locations that are often part of the UNESCO heritage. In the same year, he was awarded the prestigious ICOMOS-UNESCO PRIZE “for having masterfully combined the ancient and the contemporary in sculptural installations of great evocative power and aesthetic value.”

    In August 2023, the FONDAZIONE ARTE E CULTURA GIANFRANCO MEGGIATO was established with the aim of enhancing and preserving the work of Gianfranco Meggiato and, in general, of promoting art and culture.

    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Acquarius, 2022 Painted bronze 61 x 45 x 45 cm 24 x 17 3/4 x 17 3/4 in
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Acquarius, 2022
      Painted bronze
      61 x 45 x 45 cm
      24 x 17 3/4 x 17 3/4 in
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Quantica, 2022 Painted bronze D 60 cm D 23 5/8 in
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Quantica, 2022
      Painted bronze
      D 60 cm
      D 23 5/8 in
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Acquarius, 2019 Bronze 81 x 60 x 60 cm 31 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in Edition of 8
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Acquarius, 2019
      Bronze
      81 x 60 x 60 cm
      31 7/8 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in
      Edition of 8
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Mondo Interiore, 2020 Bronze D 40 cm D 15 3/4 in Edition of 8
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Mondo Interiore, 2020
      Bronze
      D 40 cm
      D 15 3/4 in
      Edition of 8
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Dio è Madre, 2020 Bronze 56 x 30 x 30 cm 22 1/8 x 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in Edition of 8
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Dio è Madre, 2020
      Bronze
      56 x 30 x 30 cm
      22 1/8 x 11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
      Edition of 8
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Dancing in The Dark, 2020 Bronze 75 x 50 x 50 cm 29 1/2 x 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in Edition of 8
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Dancing in The Dark, 2020
      Bronze
      75 x 50 x 50 cm
      29 1/2 x 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in
      Edition of 8
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Vega Bronze D 40 cm D 15 3/4 in
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Vega
      Bronze
      D 40 cm
      D 15 3/4 in
      Enquire
    • Gianfranco Meggiato Sfera Cabala Fusione in bronzo a cera persa D 27 cm
      Gianfranco Meggiato
      Sfera Cabala
      Fusione in bronzo
      a cera persa
      D 27 cm
      Enquire
  • Gianfranco Meggiato, Frequenze Auree, 2024
     Gianfranco Meggiato, Frequenze Auree, 2024
    Enquire

    Public displays

    Since 2017 he has decided to deal with scientific and social issues through the creation oflarge public installations with monumental works:

     

    “The Garden of the Silent Muses”(Catanzaro 2017) symbolically placed to defend our values ​​and our culture from terrorism.
    “The Spiral of Life” (Palermo 2018) within Manifesta 12, dedicated to the innocent victims of the mafia.
    “The Garden of Zyz”for Matera European Capital of Culture (2019), wanted to be a meeting point between cultures often in conflict with each other in the logic that everything is one.
    “Quantum Man: There is no Future without Memory”(2021) with a large personal exhibition with monumental works at the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento in an attempt to find the point of contact between archaeology, philosophy and quantum physics.
    “The Spiral of Life” (2022), the installation for the municipality of Prato and the Pecci museum which saw a representation of the installation dedicated to the innocent victims of the mafia.
    “The Breath of Form”(2022), City of Pisa, ITALY, promoted by the Municipality of Pisa, sponsored by the Tuscany Region, Scuola Normale Superiore and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, exhibition of 14 monumental works in the city and a solo exhibition at the church of Santa Maria della Spina
    “The Encounter – Symbol of Peace” (2023), City of Rome, ITALY, promoted by the Municipality of Rome Municipio 1, installation dedicated to the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
    “The Dioscuri Return to Rome” (2023), City of Rome, ITALY, promoted by the Municipality of Rome Municipio 1, with the patronage of the “Via Veneto” Association.
    “Lines of the Invisible” (2024), Baku, ARZEBAIJAN, at Heydar Aliyev Center Installation of 39 works, of which 19 monumental and 19 unpublished.
    “Awakening” (2024), Forte dei Marmi, ITALY, Installation of 11 monumental works, promoted by the Municipality of Forte dei Marmi.

     
     
     
  • Rome

    Rome

    A major exhibition by sculptor Gianfranco Meggiato is scheduled 1 December-1 February in Rome.
    Eleven monumental sculptures will be set up in an emblematic site in the Capital, in the heart of the Municipality 1 area between Via Veneto and Porta Pinciana.

  • Altamura

    Altamura

    A large, spiral-shaped installation commemorating all the victims of the mafia in Apulia, as well as the assassinations in Capaci and Via D’Amelio where judges Falcone and Borsellino and their escorts all lost their lives, is the latest work by the Venice-born artist Gianfranco Meggiato inaugurated on the anniversary of the murder of Domi Martimucci, who was barbarously killed by a bomb attack on the night between 4 and 5 March 2015.
  • Genesis

    Genesis

    Genesisis the great exhibition of Venetian artist Gianfranco Meggiato, from the 4th February to the 25th March, at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice. The exhibition counts more than 50 sculptures; some of them monumental. It wants to be a retrospective and also a presentation of new artworks.
    Sponsored by Lu.C.C.A. Museum of Contemporary Art, with the decisive support of Orler Gallery and Misericordia Foundation, the exhibition adds value to the sixteenth sansoviniano hall with contemporary sculptures by Gianfranco Meggiato.