Velasco (1960) November, 1990

Velasco Vitali (1960) November, 1990, oil on carton applied on canvas, cm 102x71;
signed lower right

Exhibitions:    
Turin, Galleria Davico, 1991, solo exhibition, ref. no. 11

Publications:
catalogue of solo exhibition, Turin, Galleria Davico, 12.01-02.02.1991.
            
Provenance:
Turin, Davico Gallery 
Turin, Private collection


He draws, paints, and models cement and iron between the lake, Milan, and Sicily. His activity, which started with drawing and graphics, soon turned towards painting and has recently expanded to include sculpture.
After winning the San Fedele Young Engraving Prize in 1983, the following year he was invited by Giovanni Testori to the Rotonda della Besana in Milan for the Artists and Writers exhibition. This marked the beginning of an important relationship of respect and collaboration that led Velasco to illustrate Testori's work, Il dio di Roserio, published in 1994. It was Testori who also called upon Vittorio Sgarbi to curate Velasco's first solo exhibition in Milan, focused on drawings and paintings (1986).
After several solo exhibitions in northern Italy, Velasco's painting focused on the tragedy that struck parts of Valtellina in the late 1980s, culminating in the exhibition Paesaggio Cancellato curated by Roberto Tassi in Sondrio (1990). Velasco's artistic research continued to explore portraiture, which found expression in solo and group shows. These include the Ritratto exhibition in 1991, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, and the publication Vedere le facce, a volume edited by Marco Vallora and Dario Voltolini in collaboration with Velasco in 1997.
In the late 1990s, Velasco became associated with the Officina milanese group, centered around critic Alessandro Riva. This shift brought a change in thematic interest in Velasco's production. While painting remained at the forefront, Velasco "discovered" the South, particularly through Sicily. In this new light, projects such as Isolitudine, presented by Ferdinando Scianna in 2000, and MIXtura in 2003, dedicated to works on paper, in collaboration with Franco Battiato, were born.
In 2003, Velasco joined the Italian Factory project, participating in exhibitions in Venice as part of the 50th International Art Exhibition, as well as in Strasbourg at the European Parliament and in Turin at the Palazzo della Promotrice delle Belle Arti, where he also became involved in Fabrizio Ferri's Ritratti project. In the same year, he compiled the series of veils in a monograph curated by Fabrizio Dentice and published by Zanussi/Rex. Prior to this, in 2002, Velasco had collaborated with Pino Corrias on the design and publication of Fotogrammi (with electric light).
In 2004, Electa published Velasco 20, a monograph documenting the artist's first twenty years of work, with a critical and philosophical contribution by Giulio Giorello.
Extramoenia is a project that Velasco developed around images of cities, with an inclination towards sculpture. After an initial exhibition organized by the Sicilian Region at the Palazzo Belmonte Riso in Palermo, the project expanded to the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan, accompanied by a catalog published by Charta. Velasco also participated in the Iconica. Arte contemporanea e Archeologia exhibition in collaboration with Italian Factory, organized by the Sicilian Region during the summer of 2004.
One of Velasco's works has become part of the Farnesina Collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2005, a sculptural group by Velasco was acquired as part of the new acquisitions of the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. In 2006, a site-specific project titled Tana (Italian Factory catalog) was presented in Milan, designed for the substage of CRT, Teatro dell'Arte. It consisted of iron and tar sculptures arranged among piles of ropes.

Good state of preservation

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