VELASCO VITALI
Artist
Velasco Vitali was born in Bellano in 1960, the son of painter Giancarlo Vitali. He pursued his artistic studies as a self-taught artist and had been painting since childhood.
His early career was marked by his meeting with Giovanni Testori and his participation in the exhibition Artisti e Scrittori at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan. After several solo exhibitions, his painting turned towards the tragedy that devastated part of Valtellina in the late 1980s. This work culminated in Paesaggio Cancellato, an exhibition curated by Roberto Tassi in 1990.
In the late 1990s, he was invited to the Rome Quadriennale. Around that time, he began an artistic exploration of the ports of the Mediterranean and southern Italy, leading to Isolitudine, created with Ferdinando Scianna in 2000, and MIXtura, created with Franco Battiato in 2003.
In 2004, Electa published Velasco 20, a monograph covering his first twenty years of work, with a contribution by Giulio Giorello.
Extramoenia (2004–2005), an exhibition commissioned by the Sicilian Regional Government, was presented in Palermo at Palazzo Belmonte Riso and in Milan at Palazzo della Ragione. In 2005, his work entered the collection of MACRO in Rome. Curated by Danilo Eccher, he created Immagini, forme e natura delle Alpi (2007) and LATO4 (2008).
Sbarco (2010), curated by Fernando Mazzocca and Francesco Poli, was presented in Piazza Duomo and the Sant’Agostino complex in Pietrasanta, as well as in Piazza Duca d’Aosta and Palazzo Reale in Milan.
In 2011, he was invited to the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where he exhibited Veidrodis. The LKFF Gallery in Brussels hosted his solo exhibition Branco, and Skira published Apriti Cielo, a volume of watercolours on the sacred. It included drawings created for the cultural pages of Corriere della Sera, with which he has collaborated since 2007.
In 2012, he created Foresta Rossa, an artistic intervention on Isola Madre in Stresa and in Verbania, curated by Luca Molinari. The reflection on ghost towns that underpinned this installation continued the following year with the solo exhibition Foresta Rossa: 416 città fantasma nel mondo at the Triennale di Milano, curated by Luca Molinari
and Francesco Clerici. In 2013, he also presented three new monumental sculpture projects: Aria at the LKFF Gallery in Brussels; Branco, curated by Flavio Arensi, at the Vittoriale degli Italiani; and Medi Terraneo at Ruffo Castle in Scilla.
In 2014, he exhibited the sculpture Traditio Symboli in Milan Cathedral and took part in the fourth Gherdëina Sculpture Biennale in Ortisei, Val Gardena. In February 2015, he was invited to the Berlin International Film Festival, where the documentary Il Gesto delle Mani, directed by Francesco Clerici and featuring Vitali as its subject, won the FIPRESCI Prize. The film portrays him while he creates a bronze sculpture. In June of the same year, at the invitation of Emilio Mazzoli, he returned to the gallery scene with FUGA, curated by Mark Gisbourne and Giacinto di Pietrantonio, at Galleria Mazzoli in
Modena.
In 2017, he curated and designed Time Out, with the collaboration of Peter Greenaway, an exhibition dedicated to Giancarlo Vitali and held at Palazzo Reale, Castello Sforzesco, the Natural History Museum and Casa del Manzoni. In 2019, Veduta, curated by Danilo Eccher, was presented at M77 Gallery in Milan. That same year, he presented the installation Branco in the Royal Court of the Palace of Venaria in Turin. In 2020, in collaboration with Arte Sella and MART in Rovereto, he designed a monument to the Resistance for the museum’s sculpture park and for Castel Ivano in Trentino. Since this year, two different versions of Sbarco have been part of the new PART Museum in Rimini and the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona.
In 2020 and 2021, he presented the exhibition Goldwatch in two venues: Assab One Gallery in Milan and the Circolo in Bellano. He also collaborated with the Giovanni Falcone Foundation and the Federico II Foundation in Palermo on Spazi Capaci — Comunità Capaci, curated by Alessandro De Lisi, creating a monumental work for the bunker courtroom of Ucciardone prison and other locations.
In 2023, the Taobuk Festival in Taormina featured his solo exhibition Le Grand Bleu, curated by Luca Beatrice. Later, at the invitation of Vincenzo Trione, he collaborated with a group of students from IULM University’s Master’s degree programme in Art on a shared curatorial project, which culminated in the extensive solo exhibition Listen
Better.
In Milan in 2024, he presented Terra Rossa, a new series of abstract-geometric paintings inspired by Kazimir Malevich’s Red Square, at Antonia Jannone Gallery. Since summer 2024, his monumental sculpture Sabir has been part of the permanent sculpture collection at Arte Sella in Trentino-Alto Adige.
At the end of the year, La Corte di Danimarca became part of the permanent exhibition in the Throne Room of the Royal Villa of Monza.
This installation of seven canvases, inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, weaves together theatre and history, evoking the relationship between the drama and the historical events that shaped the royal family.
In April 2025, the Giancarlo Vitali Museum opened in Bellano, dedicated to his father, the painter and printmaker born in 1929. The redevelopment of the spaces and the design of the exhibition route were overseen by Vitali Studio.
For the eighth edition of Arteparco, he created Stasis, an aluminium sculpture depicting a wolf, placed on an oak trunk in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. The work creates a dialogue between art and nature and invites viewers to respect the landscape and the sacredness of the forest.
In August, he created Vela I and Vela II, two large canvases for the Skylight Hall of the Palazzina del Fuga at the Quirinal Palace.
Mirroring one another, the sails capture two contrasting moments of the day: a dark sunset and a cold dawn, subtly evoking the relationship between water and air.
