Paolo Leonardo
Turin, 1973Lives and works in Turin
Trained at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, he has been active in Turin since the mid-1990s. His pictorial work represents a challenge to the contemporary media system and a research based on the interaction between painting and photography. His first interventions focused on posters affixed in the city, through which the artist initiated a creative process, aimed at overturning the meanings and codes of the advertising system: “One night I tore down two large posters, one a man's face and one a woman's face, and after having modified them with a pictorial intervention, in an expressionist style, I abusively placed them back in the advertising street displays.”
In recent years, Leonardo has returned to an analogue dimension of the image, through a choice of materials on which to work. In the new series of works Rossi (2022), ink on photographic print, the artist chooses photographs in which the image is distorted, erased and chromatically flattened by colour. In the Gold series (2023) it is the female figure that is central; these are images of women's bodies recovered by the Association for Historical Photography, the originals of which date back to the 1870s and 1880s. The last cycle is the Blue (2024), in which the format is larger and the medium varies from canvas to paper.
SOLO SHOWS (SELECTION)
2025
Maggio, galleria Alessandro Bagnai, Florence
2024
Resurfacing Erasures, curated by Raffaella De Chirico, Raffaella De Chirico Arte Contemporanea, Milan
2022
Altri Occhi, Alessandro Bagnai gallery, Foiano della chiana, Arezzo
2021
Arte a Binaria, la fabbrica delle E, curated by Luisa Valentini, Turin
Regine, Wunderkammer Visionnaire, curated by Marco Morandini, Milan
2020
Comment ca va?, Raffaella De Chirico Arte Contemporanea, Turin
2019
Solo da bambini, with Lina Fuca’ and Daniele Gaglianone, curated by Maria Centonze, Fondazione Merz, Turin
GROUP SHOWS (SELECTION)
2025
Bluire, Camerachiara, teatro del lavoro, Pinerolo
Bluire, Camerachiara, teatro di Casalborgone
2024
I am every woman, curated by Raffaella De Chirico, Raffaella De Chirico Arte Contemporanea, Milan
Metal Soundz, curated by Pierfranco Giolito, MODULOVENTISEI, Leini
Silenzio, curated by Giuseppe Armenia, Ispica
La stanza di compensazione, curated by Dino Ferruzzi, Cremona
Il tempo della comunanza, curated by Olga Gambari, Fondazione Garuzzo, Saluzzo
2023
Paris design week, Galerie Placido,Paris
Breccie, curated by Giuseppe Armenia, Ispica
Antologia, Galleria Alessandro Bagnai, Foiano della Chiana, Arezzo
Metamorfosi, Galleria Alessandro Bagnai, Florence
LontaniVicini, curated by un ponte per l’arte, binaria arte, Turin
2022
No War, curated by Marzia Capannolo, Galleria gli acrobati, Turin
Tales and passion repetita, galerie Placido, Paris
Chi non si perde e’ perduto, Teatro Contemporaneo Collettivo camerachiara, Teatro caffè Muller, Turin
2021
Choices, Raffaella De Chirico arte contemporanea, Milan
Una infinita bellezza, Il paesaggio in Italia dalla pittura romantica all’arte contemporanea, curated by Guido Curto, Riccardo Passoni, Virginia Bertone, Reggia di Venaria Reale, Venaria
2020
Chi non si perde è perduto, Teatro Contemporaneo, La camera chiara, with Giulietta De Bernardi, Alberto Momo, Paolo Leonardo, Alberto Danzi, Enrico Gaveglio, Teatro Del Lavoro, Pinerolo
2019
Elogio della fragilità, NESXT, Turin
Home sweet home, Davide Paludetto Arte Contemporanea, Turin
Cinquantatrechilometridifilo, project by Silvia Beccaria, curated by Olga Gambari, Azimut, Turin
Anni90, il decennio delle illusioni, curated by Edoardo di Mauro, Casa del Conte Verde, Rivoli
(im)permeabili, curated by Tea Taramino in collaboration with Francesco Sena, Galleria Studiodieci, Vercelli