Giorgio Bonelli Biography
Giorgio Bonelli (1941 - 1986), brother of the ceramist Maria Galfré, studied at the Art School of Genoa and Turin. At the age of nineteen he approached the art of ceramics by frequenting Albisola and its kilns and decorating numerous dishes. He began to exhibit in the early 1960s in Albissola Marina, where he cultivated the friendships of Fontana, Lam and many other artists. In 1964 he won the 'Duchessa di Galliera' scholarship from the Municipality of Genoa for a stay in Paris where he attended the Acadèmie Julian in Paris. He mainly resides in Turin after his return. In recent years he exhibited a very sophisticated and completely unique figurative/conceptual pictorial style, which earned him the applause of critics such as Carluccio, Jean Clair, Crispolti, and important Turin and Milanese collectors. From 1961 to 1979 he held personal exhibitions in Albisola, Savona, Milan, Turin and Rome. Bonelli's ability and style were imprinted with a strong expressive, innovative and poetic charge and which sees the prodigious play of air-matter-light-sound balances. Giorgio Bonelli was the subject of an exhibition in the Rivara Castle in 2005, about twenty years after his death: “Giorgio Bonelli. Works 1966-1986” a collection of around 40 paintings, watercolours, drawings and ceramics.
