GIULIANO GHELLI Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1944 - d. 2014

Giuliano GHELLI - was born in 1944 in Florence. He began his career in 1963, as very young artist, in a collective exhibition at the "Number" gallery in Milano. After his first exhibition in 1974 at Paris, he held a personal exhibition at New York in 1975. He has held personal exhibitions in public and private galleries in Italy and in many foreign countries. In 1975-80 exhibits in Frankfurt, Dortmund, Bremen, Luxembourg, Brussels, Stockholm, Worpswede and Bocholt. In 1980-90 continues to exhibit in Italy, Northern Europe and mounts one-man shows in Barcelona, Seville, and Thessaloniki, surpassing 100 one-man shows overall.

In 1992 the artist is invited by the City of Milan to mount a solo exhibition at the Castello Sforzesco. The show’s catalog “Traveling with Leonardo”, is published by the Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at UCLA with a text by Carlo Pedretti. In 1995 Mercedes Benz of Italy commissioned Ghelli to execute twenty large works on canvas documenting the history of Mercedes cars. The pieces are on permanent display throughout Mercedes’ new Rome headquarters. In 1995-96 is commissioned by the Mediateca Regionale Toscana to execute a series of original watercolors and posters commemorating the “Masters of Cinema Prize”, awarded to Mario Monicelli, Alberto Sordi and Robert Altman. In 1998 exhibits for the first time in Los Angeles. In 2000: he is chosen by the Collodi Foundation to paint a large mural commemorating the story of Pinocchio; the artist exhibits for the first time in Sydney, Australia: a solo show on the occasion of the 2000 Olympic Summer Games. In 2001 his solo show at the Pecci Museum of Contemporary Art, Prato, Italy. In 2002 the Camera Nazionale della Moda and the City of Milan commissioned Ghelli to execute two painted tailors’ busts awarded to the Herald Tribune journalist Suzy Menkes, winner of the “Milan Fashion Prize 2002” One year later is commissioned by Toyota Corporation to produce all the original artwork for the 2003 Toyota Calendar (distribution of 1.1M copies in Japan). In 2003 solo show at the Galleria Calandra Arte in Manarola during the Palermo Art Fair, with texts by Riccardo Ferrucci.

In 2004: solo show through the Marble Arch Fine Arts Gallery at the Miami Art Fair; again creates a painted tailors’ bust for the “Milan Fashion Prize” awarded to Franca Sozzani, Editor of Vogue Italia; solo show at the Die Gallery in Frankfurt; exhibits painted tailors’ busts and terracotta figures at the International Furn’Art exhibition in Belgium. In 2005: exhibits at the M’ARS Contemporary Arts Museum in Moscow in a traveling group show curated by Maurizio Vanni: “The Hat and Creativity”; solo shows in Frankfurt, Portsmouth, De Haan, Knokke, Furnes, and the Palazzo Pretorio in Certaldo, where his complete “army” of terracotta busts is displayed. In 2006: solo shows in Florence, Poppi, the Archeological Museum at Massa Martittima, Teatro Romano of Fiesole, and Nieuwpoort e De Haan in Belgium. In 2007: one-man shows in Miami, Montevarchi, Carrara, Iseo, Faenza, Bredene and Herentals (Belgium), and in Jade (Germany); "Giuliano Ghelli Foundation" was set up in Poppi (Arezzo), housing a permanent anthology of his works. In February 2008 he presented a one-man show at the Italian Institute of Culture in Tokyo, to coincide with the launch of the new FIAT 500 for Japan, creating a unique example of the car, with his pictorical intervention.

In 2009: “Le Porte della Fantasia” in the Sala d’Arme of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence with a parallel exhibition in Galleria Mirabili;another exhibition is held in Galleria ModenArte, Modena and another show is scheduled for November at the Scuderie di Palazzo Moroni, Padua. He lives in San Casciano Val di Pesa, in the Florentine Chianti district.