Luigi Mainolfi Biography
Luigi Mainolfi (Rotondi, 16 February 1948) is an Italian sculptor. Known internationally, he is one of the main representatives of the so-called post-conceptual sculpture, which established itself at the beginning of the eighties. Since the beginning he has created sculptures using poor and natural materials (terracotta, plaster, wood, lava stone) and bronze castings. After studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, he was attracted by the artistic and cultural panorama of Turin and in 1973 he moved there. In this period, he supported himself by working as a security guard at the Michelin factory near Corso Umbria, which later closed. The first works, created between 1972-76, investigate the body and the gesture: in the first exhibitions and performances, he presents casts of his own body in plaster which he leaves to consume in the water, causing the sculpture to transform and degrade, as happened in Cavriago in 1977 or makes them fall from above to the ground as in the performance at the Galleria civica d'arte moderni in Bologna of the same year. In 2001 the artist was chosen as Italy's representative for an exchange between our country and Japan. He arrives at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sapporo where he creates swims in the water of Hokkaido and Colonne di Sapporo for the Mainolfi park. In confirmation of the criticism of his artistic career he received several official awards: appointed member of the National Academy of San Luca in 2007. On the occasion of the celebrations for the 150 years of the Unification of Italy, Palazzo Madama in Turin hosted a large installation by the artist entitled Turin that looks at the sea from April to November 2011, in the Juvarriano Atrium. Between 1979 and In 1980 he created the Bell at the Tucci Russo gallery in Turin and La sovereign inattualità at the Pavilion of contemporary art in Milan in 1982. In the following decade he presented large terracottas, with landscapes and subjects of fairytale inspiration (Birth of the ogre Elefantessa of 1980). Participates in the Sao Paulo Biennial (1981); he exhibited Alle forche caudine at the fortieth Venice Biennale and at "Documenta 7 in Kassel", (1982); he took part in the Biennale de Paris (1982) with Le bases del cielo (1981-82) and at the Venice Biennale (1986) he exhibited the bronze Trionfo (Elefantessa, 1982). He participated in the XI and XII Quadrennial of national art in Rome. It is the drawing that accompanies all of Mainolfi's production. In 1987 he won the "superior prixe" at the 5th Henry Moore GP in Japan, with the large bronze Giant City (1986) and obtained the Michelangelo prize for sculpture (2007) awarded to him by the city of Carrara. In 1990 he had a personal room at the Venice Biennale where he installed Sole nero (water, wax, wood, 1988-89). In the following years, among the main solo exhibitions and retrospectives we remember: 1992, Contemporary Art Gallery, Rimini; 1994, Villa delle Rose, Civic Gallery of Modern Art, Bologna, and Galerie Hlavniho mèsta Prahy, Prague; 1995, Hotel de Galliffet, Paris; 1995, Promoter of fine arts, Civic Gallery of Modern Art, Turin; 1996-97 Civic Museum of Castelnuovo, Maschio Angioino and Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes Museum, Naples. Born in Irpinia, Luigi Mainolfi trained artistically in Naples; lives and works in Turin.
