Gino Marotta

Gino Marotta

Gino Marotta (Campobasso, 1935 – Rome, 2012) was an Italian artist, pioneer in the use of methacrylate as sculptural material.

Biography and Work

Gino Marotta was an italian painter and sculptor. After an initial period of original overcoming of the Informal art, in the early 1960 he began research on the dynamic synthesis between figuration, language and codes; subsequently he shows an increasingly marked attention to new chemical/industrial materials and, specifically, to methacrylate. This artist poetically uses this hyper-technological material, obtaining lyrical universes populated by trees and animals, lightning, and starry skies, as in the famous installation Bosco naturale-artificiale (Natural-artificial Forest) presented in Foligno in 1967.

In the 1980s, Gino Marotta returned to more “traditional” materials and techniques, including painting. The artist actively participated in and planned some of the most famous exhibitions in the panorama of the Italian neo-avant-garde, including "Lo Spazio dell'Immagine" (1967), "Amore Mio" (1970) and "Vitalità del Negativo" (1970). Furthermore, in 1968 he was present in exhibitions such as the "Teatro delle Mostre" at the Galleria La Tartaruga, "Arte Povera+Azioni povere", curated by Germano Celant and in other relevant venues such as the Venice Biennale, the MoMA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and, lastly, the solo show at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome (2012).

Exhibitions

Among Gino Marotta relevant solo and group exhibitions, we can mention: Gino Marotta (Galleria Montenapoleone, Milan, 1957); I Piombi (Galleria La Salita, Rome, 1958); Bandoni (Galleria dell’Ariete, Milan, 1959); Crack (Galleria Il Canale, Venice, 1960); Pitture-Oggetti (Galleria dell’Ariete, Milan, 1961); Gino Marotta, sculptures récentes (Galerie Aujourd’hui. Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles, 1966); Lo Spazio dell’Immagine (Palazzo Trinci, Foligno, 1967); Naturale-Artificiale (Galleria dell’Ariete - Milan, Galleria Christian Stein – Turin, Galleria La Nuova Loggia – Bologna, 1968); Teatro delle Mostre (Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome, 1968); Arte Povera + Azioni Povere (Amalfi, 1968); Ceroli, Kounellis, Marotta, Pascali 4 artistes italiens plus que nature (Musèe du Louvre, Paris, 1969); Amore Mio (Palazzo Ricci, Montepulciano, 1970); Vitalità del negativo nell’arte italiana, 1960 – 1970 (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1970-71); Italy. The new domestic Landscape (MoMA, New York, 1972); Gino Marotta Rinoceronte e altra natura (Galleria Borghese, Rome, 1974); La Biennale di Venezia (Venice, 1984, 2011); Gino Marotta Metacrilati (Palazzo Ricci, Macerata, 1999); Metacrilati (Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, 2001); L’Eden di Gino Marotta (Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, 2001); Gino Marotta (MACRO, Rome, 2009); Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968–2008 (Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Chicago, 2009); Gino Marotta Relazioni pericolose (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, 2012); Il favoloso mondo di Gino Marotta (Erica Ravenna, Rome, 2018).