Marco Gradi Biography
Gradi Marco (Mantua, 13 December 1955) He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna to graduate in 1978. He began his artistic activity while attending the Academy, with participation in the group exhibitions organized by the high school, to then prepare, the first solo exhibition entitled "RI/Velare" at the Galleria il Chiodo in Mantua in 1979. Followed, in 1980, by "Accursia" curated by Concetto Pozzati, at the Palazzo D'Accorsio in Bologna; the following year he exhibited at the Galleria Il Chiodo (MN) and, in 1982, at the Galleria Tommaseo in Trieste with the exhibition "Una hypothesis visual"; then at the San Fedele Gallery in Milan in 1984. In the following years Gradi was present in various national events: in 1983 in Suzzara he was invited to the "Eight young artists in the gallery" exhibition organized by the local Galleria Civica d'Arte Contemporanea; the following year, at the Casa del Mantegna. He appears at the "Squilibri" exhibition, and with Chiara Dynys he holds a solo exhibition at the Galleria Libreria Einaudi in Mantua. In 1984 he participated in the Faenza Youth Biennale and the traveling Youth Biennale, both editions sponsored by the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna of Bologna, he also appeared at the Ferrari Gallery in Verona on two occasions, presenting an important cycle of works with Zanzibar. It follows the cycle of the Small Atlases, ordered in a solo exhibition at the Galleria Corrani in Mantua in 1986; at the performances of the Western Archipelago, presented in Graz in 1987 and, after participation in the XXXII edition of the Suzzara Prize in 1993, in Brescia in 1994; to arrive at the Alambrando cycle performed between 1997 and 1999. The stagings in Munich, Cologne, Vienna, up to those in Orlando, Florida, and Tsukuba in Japan date back to the 1990s. In 2000, from 8 April to 30 June, he took part in the exhibition "Arte a Mantua 1950-1999" in the Isabella d'Este Apartment in Palazzo Ducale in Mantua. Marco Gradi, in addition to his activity as a painter, carries out research on the works of the past, adopting a principle linked to the morphology of the painting: conformation, structure, structural analysis of the pigments, stratigraphy, visual perception and semiology on the body of the painting. His research and studies are on Baschenis, Lo Spagnoletto, Domenico Zeni and other artists of contemporary characteristics. In 2004 Marco Gradi founded the magazine “La Tenda rossa”, in collaboration with Sabine Frank and Marco Paladini, with the collaboration of Campanotto Editore; the magazine is distributed in Italy by Feltrinelli bookshops.
