Gianfranco Meggiato
Mine are forms of light vibrating in space, mine is a search for the sublimation of matter.
I never make preparatory drawings. I work with immediacy, moment by moment, modelling the hot wax, free from conditioning or preconceived projects.
I don't want to risk becoming my own craftsman by merely reproducing projects.
Gianfranco Meggiato was born on 26 August 1963 in Venice. He attended the State Institute of Art in Venice where he studied sculpture in stone, bronze, wood and ceramics.
When still only 16, Venice City Council invited him to exhibit his sculptures at the Bevilacqua La Masa Civic Gallery in St. Mark’s Square.
Meggiato models his sculptures inspired by biomorphic fabric and the labyrinth symbolising mankind’s tortuous path towards self-awareness and the discovery of a precious inner sphere. Inasmuch, Meggiato coined the concept of “intro-sculpture” wherein the observer’s gaze is drawn into the soul of the work and not merely its external surfaces.
Since 1998 he has been invited to exhibit in museums, galleries and public squares all over the world.
He was also invited to exhibit at the 54th and 55th VENICE BIENNIAL events in the Italian Pavilions (2011-2013) and at MANIFESTA12 (2018)
Since 2017, he has created large installations highlighting social and educational themes, setting them up in significant public locations that often include UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
In the same year, he was awarded the prestigious ICOMOS-UNESCO PRIZE “for having masterfully combined the ancient and the contemporary in sculptural installations of great evocative power and aesthetic value”.
Gianfranco Meggiato was born on 26 August 1963 in Venice, where he attended the Istituto Statale d’Arte. He studied sculptural decoration and ceramics, and met the charismatic Prof. Loris Zambon, a Vene- tian sculpture who had been a student of Viani. In the first year of high school he made a panel in Vicenza stone that was shown in 1979 in a group show at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa on Piazza San Marco in Venice. Later, in 1984, he returned to Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, showing two panels in semi-plastic fire clay.
In his research, Meggiato looks to the great masters of the 20th cen- tury: Brancusi for his pursuit of the essential, Moore for the inner-outer relationship of his maternity scenes, Calder for the opening to space in his works.
The artist shapes his sculptures on the basis of biomorphic tissues and the theme of the labyrinth, which symbolizes the twisted path of man in search of the self, attempting to reveal the precious interior sphere.
Meggiato thus invents the concept of “introsculpture” in which the gaze of the observer is drawn towards the inside of the work, not simply lingering over the outer surfaces. “On a formal level space and light do not border the work, the slide over it as if it were an object in the round, and penetrate its interior, wrapping lattices and tangles, reaching the point of illuminating the central sphere as the ideal point of arrival.”
Gianfranco Meggiato’s work is now shown in international fairs and ex- hibitions in many countries, including the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Principality of Monaco, the Ukraine, Russia, India, Chi- na, the Arab Emirates, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Aus- tralia.