Pietro Roccasalva (b. 1970, Modica, Italy) makes paintings, sculptures, films, and other works that constitute a single, ever-expanding artistic vision. The entirety of his practice is like an ongoing installation that takes place in different locations across many moments in time; each piece refers both to past works as well as a potential infinity of future ones. While this multiplicity informs the artist’s Renaissance-like ability to employ a dizzying array of materials and modes, his masterful paintings are squarely at the center of his project. Synthesizing compositional strategies drawn from religious iconography, modernist collage, and digital distortion, and skillfully rendered over months and even years, the figures in the paintings are both deeply familiar and impossibly strange. They seem to return their viewers’ gaze, transforming the act of looking into an act of philosophical reflection. Yet despite the virtuosic technique that characterizes Roccasalva’s approach, as well as his deep knowledge of painting’s history, the interconnectivity and mystery he conjures are decidedly futuristic, reflective of a world in which more and more seems to be known but less and less is certain.
Pietro Roccasalva has been the subject of solo exhibitions at a number of institutions, including Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch, Donaueschingen, Germany (2019); The Power Station, Dallas (2016); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany (2014); Le Magasin, Grenoble, France (2013); CCS Bard at Seventh Regiment Armory, New York (2008); and Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy (2007). His work is in the permanent collections of such museums as Museion, Bolzano, Italy and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Roccasalva lives and works in Milan.
Pietro Roccasalva
Study from Jockey full of Bourbon, 2017
oil on canvas
59 7/8 x 41 3/8 x 2 inches
(152.1 x 105.1 x 5.1 cm)
framed:
63 3/4 x 43 3/8 x 4 inches
(161.9 x 110.2 x 10.2 cm)
Pietro Roccasalva
Study from Just Married Machine, 2016
acrylic on canvas
framed:
92 1/4 x 75 x 3 3/8 inches
(234.3 x 190.5 x 8.6 cm)
Pietro Roccasalva
Rear Window IX, 2016
Moleskine notebook with charcoal and acrylic on paper
framed:
21 1/2 x 26 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches
(54.6 x 67.3 x 4.4 cm)
Pietro Roccasalva
Fanfaro, 2014
painted wood, fried rice ball
47 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 50 inches
(121 x 73 x 127 cm)
Edition of 3, with 1 AP
Pietro Roccasalva
The Seven Sleepers, 2013
mixed media
installation dimensions variable
Installation view, Le Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain (CNAC), Grenoble, France
Pietro Roccasalva
Il Traviatore, 2012
pastel on paper on forex
39 x 31 inches
(99 x 78.5 cm)
framed:
41 3/4 x 37 x 1 3/4 inches
(106 x 94 x 4.4 cm)
Pietro Roccasalva
Truka all-over (The Formula of the Phantom), 2010
two performers, silver-coated armor, acrylic, airbrushes, spray guns, photograph, platform
photograph:
47 1/4 x 106 1/4 inches
(120 x 270 cm)
platform:
47 1/4 x 106 1/4 inches
(120 x 270 cm)
Performance view, Johnen Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Pietro Roccasalva
Z, 2008
tableau vivant, offset print on paper, fried rice ball, oil on canvas, neon offset print on paper
dimensions variable
Performance view, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY
Pietro Roccasalva
The Skeleton Key III, 2007
soft pastel on paper on forex
74 1/2 x 57 3/4 inches
(189 x 147 cm)
Pietro Roccasalva
Jockey Full of Bourbon II, 2006
neon, resin and hand-painted feathers, microphone pole, acrylic on paper on forex, mirror
114 1/4 x 267 3/4 x 228 1/4 inches
(290 x 680 x 580 cm)
Installation view, Le Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain (CNAC), Grenoble, France
Pietro Roccasalva
The oval portrait. A ventriloquist at a birthday party in October 1947, 2005
tableau vivant, soft pastel on paper on panel
pastel on paper: 35 3/4 x 59 inches (91 x 150 cm)
installation dimensions variable
Performance view, Premio Furla per l'Arte, Villa delle Rose, Bologna, Italy
Pietro Roccasalva
Giocondità, 2002
digital animation
3:53 minutes, looped
Edition of 12