About The Artist

He was born in Verona, Italy. He grew up in the cultural atmosphere of the '70s in Florence, where he graduated in Architecture. In that period he was also a musician and experimental performer. In the mid '80s he wrote songs and sang with his rock band in Verona, and worked as a scene, graphic and furniture designer. In 1997 the first exhibits in the art-world of painting. Much appreciated by critics and the public is the series of works dedicated to the Industrial Archeology, with which Gentile divert the attention onto cultural products for survival: they are geological finds of a recent civilisation, the industrial one. These works, rigorously pastel painted, are totems, neglected mechanical parts abandoned to indifference. These objects, captured in their monumental plasticity are tragically present; they seem solid and impregnable mechanisms like ancient war machines. The support material is presented as fragile, recycled cardboard, as meagre as the oppressive isolation of the objects. And yet in this ambivalent scene of force and fragility is the harmonious result of the mix where the support is not only the place of evocation but becomes expressive material that transforms itself into light and colour. Some of his recent works, made with the technique of cardboard above, increased by inserts of objects, called for a reflection on social issues and on the meaning of art itself. Numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy, in several European cities and recently in China. Gianfranco Gentile nasce a Verona, Italia. A Firenze si laurea in Architettura e si occupa di musica sperimentale e improvvisazione elettroacustica, partecipando a manifestazioni di musica contemporanea sia in Italia che all’estero e a performance del movimento artistico Fluxus. Dopo alcuni anni a Roma, dove continua l’attività di musicista anche in ambito di teatro sperimentale, torna a Verona dove tuttora risiede. A metà degli anni ‘90 inizia il percorso nell’arte pittorica che lo porta ai nostri giorni. Da alcuni anni, attraverso l’utilizzo di cartoni da imballaggio riciclati e dipinti con tecnica a pastello, Gentile propone un’operazione della memoria, un’archeologia industriale che riflette esteticamente sull’invenzione umana e il suo trascorrere. Alcune sue opere recenti, realizzate con la tecnica su cartone suddetta, aumentata da inserti di oggetti, invitano a una riflessione su problematiche sociali e sul significato dell'arte stessa. Numerose le esposizioni personali e collettive in Italia, in varie città europee e recentemente in Cina.