Gianni Mantovani

Gianni Mantovani was born in Concordia (Mo) in 1950 where he still lives today. He studies at the Art Institute of Modena and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. At the age of seventeen he won the competition held among the students of the Italian Art Academies held at the Palazzo dei Musei in Modena and subsequently participated, representing the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, in the "Third Engraving Exhibition" at the National Cabinet of Prints in Rome. In 1974 he began teaching Painting Disciplines at the Art School of Bologna. In the mid-80s his artistic research is oriented on the abstract side in harmony with the critic Giorgio Cortenova who theorizes the "Archaic Abstraction", presenting it at the Pinacoteca di Macerata and the Galleria Civica di Vicenza. In that period he exhibited his works marked by an abstraction that became more and more lyrical, in Modena, Florence, Verona, Rome, Pavia, Sofia (Bulgaria). In 1991 he won the national competition for the teaching of “Painting” in the Italian Art Academies in which the artistic qualifications are fundamental for the assignment of the score. In 1993 he was a founding member of the “Giorgio Morandi” artistic circle of Mirandola and was elected first president. Since 1994 he has been a tenured professor of "Painting" and later of "Drawing" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and for several years as secretary of the Institute of Painting, he organizes and sets up student exhibitions. The University of Bologna offers him contracts to hold lessons in the specialization courses of future teachers of Art Education and Painting Disciplines. The 90s saw Mantovani become passionate about Tribal Art, and in particular to African art, which was followed by some trips of cultural insights into the black continent. Works of African Art from his collection have been exhibited in Paris, Genoa and Milan, and published in books and magazines in France, Belgium and the USA. This interest significantly contributes to accelerating a creative turn that was already in the air in which new pictorial works are loaded with simple and fantastic images. Landscapes, flowers and nature are represented through primary and essential forms, feeding on memories and a dreamy vision. Exhibitions are held in public and private spaces: Romberg Gallery in Latina, Rome Art Fair "Riparte", Mazzocchi Gallery in Parma, "Casa Cini" Cultural Institute in Ferrara, Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin, Municipal Gallery in Angoulême (France), Gallery of the University of Parenzo (Croatia), Pico Castle of Mirandola, Civic Museum of Castelfranco Emilia, National Art Gallery of Bologna.