Gianni Testa Biography
Gianni Testa was born in Rome in 1936, the city where he still works and resides. After completing his high school studies, he enrolled in architecture courses at the La Sapienza University of Rome. However, despite his success in the first two years, he decided to abandon his studies to dedicate himself completely to his burning passion for painting. He attended the restoration school at the Borghese Gallery, under the guidance of Prof. Della Pergola, studying and deepening the techniques used by artists of the past to represent the feelings and emotions that fascinated him. For ten years he dedicated himself almost exclusively to restoration, from which he drew new expressive needs. In this period he met and frequented other artists, including Quaglia, Levi, Guttuso, Calabria and later Pericle Fazzini, with whom he became friends. In 1962, Levi invited him to participate and exhibit in a collective exhibition together with Quaglia, Guttuso, Mazzacurati and Domenico Purificazione, recognizing his authentic talent as an artist. The interest of national critics in his first works, including sculptures, pushes him to persevere on the path undertaken, full of sacrifices and sacrifices, but also of successes and goals brilliantly surpassed. Among the many prizes obtained, the collective exhibitions in which he has taken part range from the Roman Biennale (since 1968), the Milan Triennale and the Rome Quadrennial (since 1975). He also won numerous national competitions, including 1st Prize in the “Italian Brandy” Competition in 1970, up to the recent Lifetime Achievement Award given to him by the art critic Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi. He has held many exhibitions, in Italy and abroad in Germany, Basel, New York, Philadelphia. His last anthological exhibition was at the Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome in September – October 2014.
