Stefano Arienti Biography
Stefano Arienti was born in Asola, in the province of Mantua, in 1961. After graduating in agronomy, he approached art under the guidance of Corrado Levi and made his debut in the mid-80s at Brown Boveri (a former factory used as a meeting place and experimentation of many young artists) in Milan, where he still lives and works. By reworking "poor" and common materials, including paper, books and images taken from postcards, posters or photocopies, but also polystyrene, plastic, plasticine and fabrics, Arienti creates works that amaze the viewer, inviting him to reflect on the theme of "wonder " and stimulate their participation, including through manipulation. In 1985 he participated in his first collective exhibition with Muffe, intervening with colored chalk on the peeling and damp walls of the former Brown Boveri electric motor factory in the Isola district of Milan. It is already clear what will be a constant in the artist's methodology: intervening on existing images, objects or surfaces to give them a new appearance and meaning. He subsequently exhibited in Ferrara and Milan, where he held his first solo show at the Studio Corrado Levi in 1986 and set up an exhibition at the Studio Guenzani in 1989, presenting the Alghe series, long and light strips of colored plastic hanging from above, and the Turbines, sculptures created by folding pages of magazines and volumes of industrial paper: in both typologies the procedural aspect of the creation of the work is important, as is the choice of materials taken from everyday life. Boetti and Munari, Tony Cragg and Carla Accardi, Pino Pascali and Piero Gilardi exerted a significant influence on the young Arienti. Among the numerous exhibitions in which Arienti took part, the Venice Biennale (Aperto 1990, 1993) certainly deserves mention; Istanbul Biennial (1992); Cocido y Crudo, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (1994); XII Quadrennial of Rome, 1996 (in which he won first prize); Made in Italy, Center d'Art Contemporain, Geneva; ICA, London (1997); Gwangju Biennial (2008); XV Quadrennial of Rome (2008). Works performed with the fretwork technique, using the tip of a mini drill, of different materials mainly drawn from everyday life, from car doors to vinyl records, Macramè, which reproduce the delicate effects of the lace of the same name on unusual supports such as onyx or marble, and the Truncated Books are from this period. In recent years the artist has also experimented with large, highly evocative installations, such as the one called Enciclopedia, set up in 2009 with books and carded wool at the Santo Spirito in Sassia complex in Rome. Among his most recent solo exhibitions we remember: MAXXI, Rome (2004); Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin (2005); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston (2007); Querini Stampalia Foundation, Venice (2008); MAMbo, Bologna (2008); Palazzo Ducale, Mantua (2009); Museion, Bolzano (2011). Stefano Arienti taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergamo and since 2003 has been a professor at the Faculty of Design and Arts of the IUAV University of Venice.
