Giuseppe Bergomi Biography
Born in Brescia, in 1953. After graduating from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, he began his career as a hyper-realist painter. In 1978 he held his first solo exhibition as a painter at the Galleria dell'Incision in Brescia. He began to devote himself to sculpture in the 1980s following a visit to the "Les Realismes" exhibition, curated by Jean Clair in Beaubourg. Inspired by some sculptures by Otto Gutfreund and Arturo Martini on display, he imagines his paintings in the third dimension. 1981 is the year in which the artist began to dedicate himself exclusively to sculpture, polychrome terracotta and from 1989 to bronze castings. Through a particular technique, using colored patinas, Bergomi manages to smooth out the solemnity of the bronze, creating figures in a full-bodied sweetness. He exhibited his sculptures for the first time at the Engraving Gallery and exhibited the first polychrome terracottas representing bathers, figures of women caught in intimacy, self-portraits with his wife, Elvira Cassa Salvi. From that moment his relationships with some of the most important galleries began. In 1984 Mario De Micheli curated a solo show at the Fondazione Corrente in Milan and the following year Bergomi exhibited in Cortina d'Ampezzo with an exhibition curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, who in 1987 he is also involved in the Dialoghi di Scultura project (Turin, Galleria Davico). Between 1998 and 1989 Giuseppe Bergomi presented two exhibitions curated by Marisa Volpi. In 1990 he won the first "Premio Suzzarra" and in 1993 that of the "Grand Prix Château Beychevelle", near Bordeaux. In 1993 Bergomi was a guest at the Montecarlo Sculpture Biennial, while in 1996 Roberto Tassi curated the solo show in Milan and Marco Vappello the one in Pietrasanta. In the same year he was among the artists of the XII Quadrennial Italy 1950-1990, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. In 1997 Furio Colombo and Vittorio Sgarbi invited him to the "Premio della Camera dei Deputati" and his work "Valentina Standing" became part of the permanent collection of Montecitorio.
