Emiliano Ponzi

Turin

Via della Rocca 36, 10123 Turin, TO

Tuesday – Saturday 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Sunday, Monday only date

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+39 011 8390013

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Emiliano Ponzi Bio

In the wake of the success of the Spring preview in its Pietrasanta gallery, Marcorossi artecontemporanea reopens the exhibition season after the summer break with a novelty: the first exhibition of the paintings of prominent contemporary Italian illustrator Emiliano Ponzi. 

Emiliano Ponzi is known for his ironic yet poetic conceptual style, easily recognisable for its surreal solid colours contained within elegant invisible lines. He recently felt the need for a change of key, transforming his illustrations, which he normally creates in digital form, into large-scale paintings. This change of technique has considerably altered his work, not only in terms of size but conceptually, as creating unique works and using a brush has caused him to question his way of working and encouraged him to renew it. 

From work developed sitting at a computer to standing up painting; from the range of action of drawing, limited to the extension of the hand, Emiliano’s work now goes beyond the borders of the screen onto big canvases. Visions, glimpses of everyday life, American landscapes, the studies of famous intellectuals and cuts of light that look like true states of mind: material interiors that are authentic, imperfect, and for this reason special, like life itself.

Curator Maria Vittoria Baravelli writes: “After all, there have always been incursions, in the history of art as in the history of the world. Between art and poetry, between literature and photography, between sculpture, painting and new media. The artists of the 60’s opened up to the new digital medium of video art as the last frontier in the hybrid media art of the 20th century. Furthermore, I like to think that all artists were contemporary, in their own time. So that, at the turn of the 17th century, Caravaggio was sure to use the best-performing brushes and paints, the most modern equipment available on the market at the time. An idea of progress which, in the case of Emiliano Ponzi, means starting all over from scratch in order to move forward. Starting again from the beginning, at what used to be the end.”

Emiliano Ponzi is an illustrator, visual artist and author who was born in Milan and now lives in New York. He works in publishing, magazines, fashion and advertising: his clients include The New York Times, Le Monde, The New Yorker, Apple, Louis Vuitton, Moma NY, Cartier, Der Spiegel, Penguin Books, Hyundai, Esquire, Armani, Bulgari, Gucci, Martini, Moleskine, Airbnb, Lavazza, TIM, Pirelli, Ferrari and the Triennale Design Museum. He has received numerous honours, including the Young Guns Award and the sought-after Gold Cube of the Art Directors Club in New York, as well as multiple medals of honour (gold and silver) from the Society of Illustrators New York. He has written and illustrated 4 books: “The Journey of the Penguin” (2015) marking the anniversary of Penguin Books, “The Great New York Subway Map” (2017) for MoMa NY, “American West” (2018) chronicling his travels in the western United States, initial published as a travel diary on The New Yorker’s Instagram account and then as a book published by Corraini, “Chronicles from the Red Zone” (2020), daily notes on the first lockdown in Italy, published first as a feature in the Washington Post and then as a limited edition book by Tapirulan. His most recent solo exhibition was “The Dreamer, stories from another world” at Sun Ke villa in Shanghai between 7 January and 12 March 2023. In 2022 he created all the communications for the Salone del Mobile.