Salvatore Astore Biography
Salvatore Astore was born in San Pancrazio Salentino, in the province of Brindisi, in 1957. He moved with his family to Turin at a very young age where he still lives and works. Astore graduated from the city's Art School before moving on to study at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts. Active on the Italian and international art scene since the 1980s, he mainly deals with sculpture, painting and drawing. His works are characterized by a profound desire to experiment with techniques and materials linked to the industrial urban context, as well as by a specific interest in the condition and destiny of humanity. In 1984 Astore began the production of a cycle of medium and large-sized sculptures made first in welded and painted iron and subsequently in stainless steel. His goal was to create a new and authentic vocabulary of forms inscribed in the logic of organic structures. At the end of the 1980s Astore exhibited his works at Valeria Belvedere in Milan. In 1991 he was invited to participate in the Anni'90 exhibition curated by Renato Barilli, Dede Auregli and Carlo Gentili and set up at the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna in Bologna, the Municipal Museums of Rimini and the former "Le Navi" colony in Cattolica . The following year he participated in Avanguardie in Piemonte 1960-1990 curated by art historians Mirella Bandini and Marisa Vescovo and in 1996 he exhibited at the XII Quadrennial in Rome. In the mid-90s Astore met the American artist Sol Lewitt whom he had long admired, a meeting which strongly influenced and strengthened his artistic research. He exhibited at the gallery of Valentina and Alessandra Bonomo in Rome and at that of Marilena Bonomo in Bari. After a cycle of paintings, sculpture returned to the foreground in 2008 at the XIII Sculpture Biennial of Carrara. He participated in several important exhibitions on Italian art and collaborated with some of the most active Italian galleries of the time. His works can be found in the public collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Bologna, the Museum of Modern Art in Turin, the PAC in Milan and the Sol Lewitt Collection in Connecticut. Many art historians and critics have written about Salvatore Astore, including Tommaso Trini, Francesco Poli, Martina Corgnati, Enrico Crispolti and Luca Beatrice.
