NEWS
Bookflow
Vite nell’oro e nel blu
08.07.2025
What’s happening in 1950s Rome while in America Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns are experiencing their dazzling season?
Four eccentric lives are circulating—Mario Schifano, Tano Festa, Franco Angeli, and Francesco Lo Savio.
The novel Vite nell’oro e nel blu (“Lives in Gold and Blue”) is written by Andrea Pomella, and it captures our attention because the author brings to life a world dear to art lovers and collectors, made of stories rather than market evaluations.
Andrea Pomella, Vite nell’oro e nel blu, Einaudi, 2025
Bookflow
THE ANTI-VASSALLI
25.06.2025
Eugenio Gazzola, essayist and cultural organizer, signs a book on Sebastiano Vassalli—renowned writer, but also poet and painter. Vassalli is best known for his novel La chimera (winner of the Strega Prize, 1990), but many are unaware of his pop paintings from the early 1960s, which Studio Gariboldi has patiently and passionately collected. With equal passion and expertise, Eugenio Gazzola has written L’ANTIVASSALLI, an essay of nearly 200 pages that reveals much to those who admire the poet, the writer, and also (especially in chapter 6) the artist. Gazzola will be at the gallery in December to present his book: Thursday the 11th at 5 PM. Limited seating, reservation required at press@studiogariboldi.com
Eugenio Gazzola, L’ANTIVASSALLI, Le Lettere, Florence 2025
Photo Contest
To photograph an exhibition
09.06.2025
To photograph an Exhibition
Following the success of the first edition of the Photographing an Exhibition contest, Studio Gariboldi has decided to launch a new edition of the call, dedicated to young photographers under 30, both professionals and students.
Photographing an exhibition set up in an art gallery is a complex task, often entrusted to experienced professional photographers or, in some cases, to the gallery owners themselves. Visually capturing the artworks and the exhibition setup in their entirety requires care, sensitivity, and attention to detail. Each shot must be clear, readable, effective, and harmonious at the same time.
The aim of the contest is to select a young photographer to document the upcoming gallery exhibition, scheduled for October 2025.
Applicants must submit:
1. their curriculum vitae;
2. a short motivation letter;
3. three photographs of furnished interiors (in jpg or tiff format), showcasing technical skills and a personal artistic vision.
The deadline for submitting materials is September 15, 2025.
As in the previous edition, the selected photographer will receive compensation for their professional work and will be granted appropriate visibility through Studio Gariboldi’s social media channels and newsletter.
Applications should be sent to: press@studiogariboldi.com
All emails received will be responded to starting from September 16.
Press
Jean Arp, the false avant-gardist
05.05.2025
Studying the past to better understand the present, we came across a surprising piece of writing.
At the 27th Venice Biennale, in 1954, Jean Arp was welcomed in this way… then, in the 1960s, things would change!
“It was Jean Arp who invented the hole”
“Jean Arp, a Frenchman from Strasbourg and very German in both education and taste, is the winner of the highest Venetian award for sculpture: one and a half million lire, the Prize of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Jean Arp is a famous ‘cannon’ of the avant-garde, and like a cannon, he is thus a great piercer or maker of holes. He may even be the original inventor of the hole in art; and it’s a pity he didn’t think to patent it, because later, from Henry Moore to Lucio Fontana, holes of every size multiplied frighteningly, and the entire Biennale seems like some kind of skimmer.
But the time will come when the holes will be plugged. In fact, in Milan, there’s already a painter who paints with nails and has declared his intention to surpass Spatialism precisely by plugging up Lucio Fontana’s holes. So, after the hole, will we see the plug at the 28th Biennale? Let’s hope so.
Jean Arp, along with Brancusi, Giacometti, and other international ‘cannons’ of sculpture, is one of those false avant-gardists responsible for the terrible confusion of ideas and the reduction of modern sculpture to sheer nothingness.”
Press
The obsession with stamping
29.05.2025
Studying the past to better understand the present, we came across a surprising piece of writing.
At the 27th Venice Biennale in 1954, Giuseppe Capogrossi was received like this… then, in the 1960s, things would change!
Stamps or cockroaches?
“And here is a work by Giuseppe Capogrossi (…) which must be titled Superficie (“Surface”).
The ordinary public, upon entering the Capogrossi room, will immediately think of a cockroach march, the progress of a tapeworm, or the tracks left by rubber-soled hiking boots.The more cultured, however, will draw different comparisons: for example, to prehistoric handprints or Apulian pottery.The main issue with certain things isn’t that they say little or nothing — it’s that they’re poorly made.
In this composition, the three sets of teeth in the upper right are excessive, and they’re too close to the dominant fork motif.”
Press
The obsession with stamping
29.05.2025
And here is a work by Giuseppe Capogrossi (…) which must be titled Superficie (“Surface”).
The ordinary public, upon entering the Capogrossi room, will immediately think of a cockroach march, the progress of a tapeworm, or the tracks left by rubber-soled hiking boots.The more cultured, however, will draw different comparisons: for example, to prehistoric handprints or Apulian pottery.The main issue with certain things isn’t that they say little or nothing — it’s that they’re poorly made.
In this composition, the three sets of teeth in the upper right are excessive, and they’re too close to the dominant fork motif.
Life in the Gallery
The philosophy of moulding
26.05.2025
Picture frame moulding: a thin strip, usually made of wood, but also metal or plastic, used to edge, reinforce, or decorate.
The choice to frame a painting—and how to do it—is a conscious and delicate practice in gallery work.
Studio Gariboldi loves the slat. It defines without enclosing, refines without distracting. It is light, clean, linear.
In the picture, a frame moulding for Nobuya Abe, R.3, mixed media on canvas, 1966
Bookflow
La cornice. Storie, teorie, testi.
21.05.2025
The frame fulfills the task of isolating the work of art, shielding the image from external interference, and connecting the internal elements of the work itself. It is not a marginal detail.
The corners, the thickness, the color—everything contributes to establishing meaning, amplifying significance, creating islands, protections, autonomy.
There is so much to learn from reading the essay The Frame. Stories, Theories, Texts. Every collector should have it in their library to better understand the deeper meanings of this essential part of their beloved collection.
It’s a book that interests us because it heightens awareness and gives value to gestures that seem simple on the surface, but are, in fact, a crucial part of the gallerist’s work.
La cornice. Storie, teorie, testi.
A cura di Daniela Ferrari e Andrea Pinotti
Johan & Levi Editore, 2018
Press
“Spazio? O colabrodo?”
14.05.2025
Studying the past to better understand the present, we came across a surprising piece of writing.
At the 27th Venice Biennale in 1954, Lucio Fontana was received like this… then, in the 1960s, things would change!
“Space? Or a sieve?
Far too many holes. But don’t count them, because the number would nullify the concept of space and infinity. Technically, the work appears sloppy, and the composition is far from convincing: look at the last row, the straight diagonal at the bottom.”
The painting being discussed is the masterpiece in the photo.
