Giovanni Passera Biography
Giovanni B. Tomasoni, (Brescia 17 June 1951 – 6 November 2004) held his first exhibitions in schools, bars and factories at the end of the 1960s, with works that were influenced by the social and political ferment. At the beginning of the 1970s he met a master of Brescian painting, Ugo Aldrighi, who would prove decisive for his artistic growth. The first personal exhibition was held in 1975, in the spaces of the Piccola Galleria in Brescia. Over time, the problems of living emerge in an increasingly marked way in his work to reach the most subtle, more subtle but precisely for this reason no less violent discomforts of the soul. After a succession of solo and group exhibitions in the mid-1980s, Tomasoni's work continued more silently for a few years. He completely abandons the figurative story to rigorously address the itineraries of the informal and the material, taking black as an emblem and seal, an authentic guiding motif of his creative action. In January 1995, Tomasoni broke the silence, inaugurating with a significant review a season dotted with numerous exhibitions, a season which continued without interruption, bringing his works not only to numerous Italian locations, but also outside the borders of the country. In 1998 he made his first trip to Africa and from this moment on his artistic production would be dedicated to or influenced by his encounter with this continent. From '98 to 2004, he traveled in Africa creating artistic collections presented in various exhibitions until his latest creation: the book “Trame. The sublime and the light. Memoirs from Senegal”. Collection of photographs and artistic works presented on 5 November 2004 at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice. After the presentation that consecrated his figure in the Venetian temple of twentieth-century art, Tomasoni returned to Brescia driving his car, with his wife, Valeria, and with the deputy director of Stile, Enrico Giustacchini. There were a few tens of meters left to the Brescia Est motorway exit when the car was violently rear-ended and the artist died.
