Paolo Canevari 1963–

Paolo Canevari was born in Rome in 1963 and currently lives in New York. Canevari has, since his first solo show in Rome in 1991, engaged in a dialogue with his own background and education in classical culture and his upbringing in a family of artists. He is one of few Italian artists of his generation to be recognized internationally.

Using different kinds of materials and media like animation, drawing, video, and installation, Canevari presents easily recognizable objects to comment on themes like religion, the urban myths of happiness, and the major principles behind creation and destruction. Trained as a sculptor, he approaches his work as a means through which to convert a passive state of mind into an energetic, creative act. His adoption of the use of video springs from his desire to make images that are ephemeral but still visually striking. His recent video works can be understood as a form of ephemeral sculpture that rejects the rhetoric of eternal monuments.

Canevari has presented his work at major institutions worldwide, including the XIII Esposizione la Quadriennale d’Arte, Rome (2000); Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena (2001); the Center for Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (2001); the Liverpool Biennial (2004); Johannesburg Art Gallery-Contemporary Art Museum, Johannesburg (2005); the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2006); PS1 Center for Contemporary Art, New York (2004, 2007); Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (MART), Rovereto (2005); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (MACRO), Rome (2007); the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); MoMA, New York (2008; his video “Bouncing Skull” is part of the permanent collection there); and Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome (2008). In 2010, Germano Celant curated a mid-career retrospective at Centro Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato. Canevari has also had solo exhibitions at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2010) and at The Drawing Center, New York (2011).