Biography
Francesco Calistri was born in Pistoia in 1991.
In his artistic career, he first graduated as an Actor and Stage Artist at Laboratorio9 in Florence in 2013 and the following year he graduated in DAMS at the University of Florence. During the same period, he attended numerous private studios of Tuscan and foreign artists, after which he attended the Scuola Libera del Nudo at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, and then moved to Milan to attend the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera.
Decisive for his art was the element of travel, which led him to discover and keep alive his curiosity for the Other, leading him for research periods in Morocco, Tunisia, France, Spain, Cuba and England.
Statement
I am an artist who more or less manages to paint every day. Since I was a child, I have devoted myself to drawing and poetry.
My painting is the 'essence of who I am.
I paint responding to an inner need, a necessity. Experimentation is very important in my work, and I believe it should never end, there is always learning and improving.
My painting starts from a careful observation of reality that brought me closer to a classical style, but over time my artistic vision has moved more toward abstraction, and abandoned the desire to want to represent the subject verisimilitude. Now, in my painting, classicism is a memory, sometimes there is an echo in the detail of a look or in a statuesque pose. What is predominant in my art now is the intensity of color, the rapid gesture, the evanescence of imagination, the contemporary flow. All elements together with the essentiality of forms aimed at expressing the drama and sensuality of this precarious life that everyone lives.
In my artistic work, the portrait is predominant, and with it the psychological-spiritual focus of the interaction of color on the human soul.
Over time, the pictorial language has come to assert itself as an inner dream vision, and through a greater freedom of expression achieved, I often place emphasis on a detail of reality making it the creator of a world.
"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."
William Blake
Major solo and group exhibitions
-
2024
- Artefiera Padua with Ghiggini gallery.
- Group exhibition Ghiggini gallery, Varese.
- Exhibition at the Chianciano Biennale of Art.
- Solo exhibition “Guardami”, Spazio Ramé, Trento.
- Solo exhibition "Paper Dreams," Spazio Forno, Rome.
- Group exhibition Premio Firenze XL, Palazzo Bastogi, Florence.
- Group exhibition "100 artists in villa" Villa Contarini, Padua.
- Group exhibition NucleikArt gallery, Catania.
- Group exhibition Tobian Art Gallery, Florence.
- Group exhibition at Palazzo Sanseverino, Pavia.
-
2023
- Group exhibition Ghiggini gallery, Varese.
- Collective exhibition Premio Viviani, Villa Brivio, Nova Milanese.
- Group exhibition at Il Leone gallery, Rome.
- Group exhibition at Studio d'Arte 99, Pavia.
-
2022
- Group exhibition SaturARTE Genova.
- "Artefiera Genova" with Satura gallery.
-
2021
- Group exhibition Malamegi Lab.19 at Piazza di Pietra 28 Rome.
- "Hirdilak & Chris Cann" exhibition at Studio d'Arte 99, Pavia.
- Exhibition at the London Biennale of Art.
- Exhibition at the Genoa Biennale of Art.
- Online exhibition with artist Alessandra Guttagliere: "The Indomitable."
-
2020
- Yicca 20/21 Milan group exhibition.
- SaturARTE 2020 Genoa group exhibition.
- Group exhibition "Fortezza in arte", Fortezza Medicea di Montepulciano (Si).
-
2019
- Solo exhibition at gallery studio Bong Florence.
- Group exhibition Royal Society of portrait painters, Mall galleries London.
- Group exhibition at Arthill gallery, London.
- Group exhibition "art at fantuzzi palace" at Farini gallery in Bologna.
-
2017
- Solo exhibition for Pistoia capital of culture at the former church of San Biagino.
-
2015
- Participation in the European project "Nostoi histoires de retours et d'exodes", Carthage - Populonia.
Awards and recognitions
-
2024
- Signaling with merit at Chianciano Biennale of Art.
- Signaling with merit Mestre Painting Prize.
- Publication on magazine “Marlè”.
- Publication on “Tredici Magazine”.
-
2023
- Publication of photography book " Fotosintesi. 96 Polaroids of Spring."
- Reporting with merit for painting Florence Prize.
- Reporting with merit Premio Viviani, (MB).
- Signaling with merit Mestre Painting Prize.
- Beginning collaboration with Galleria Ghiggini, Varese.
-
2022
- Satura Prize, SaturARTE Genoa.
-
2021
- Malamegi lab.19 acquisition award. Rome.
- Emerging prize for painting at the Genoa Biennale.
- 2nd place at Yicca20/21 Milan art award.
-
2020
- Awarded artist at SaturARTE 2020 Genova.