Giorgio Griffa

Giorgio Griffa is an Italian abstract painter living and working in Turin. Giorgio Griffa never received a formal art education. He began painting as a child, taking lessons from local painters at the Circolo degli Artisti in Turin. After completing a degree in law in 1958, Griffa became a practicing lawyer. In the sixties, Griffa began working as an assistant to the Italian painter Filippo Scroppo, a member of the MAC (Art Concreta) movement and a teacher at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. In 1968, Giorgio Griffa abandoned figurative painting in favor of a format of abstract painting that still characterizes his work to this day. Painting with acrylic on raw un-stretched canvas, burlap and linen, Griffa's works are nailed directly to the wall along their top edge. When not exhibited, the works are folded and stacked, resulting creases that create an underlying grid for his compositions. Giorgio Griffa's first solo exhibition in New York was at Ileana Sonnabend's gallery. In 2012, after his solo exhibition at Casey Kaplan gallery in New York has been named one of the 10 thrilling rediscoveries from 2012. He participated in important international exhibitions such as Prospekt, Düsseldorf (1969 and 1974) and the Venice Biennale (1978 and 1980). His works are in the permanent collection of GAM, Galleria di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Rome, Museo del Novecento in Milan and Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO), Rome.