The collaboration with Stefano Bombardieri

Mostra in collaborazione con isculpture Art Gallery.

Stefano Bombardieri was born in Brescia on January 28, 1968. From elementary school onward, his father, the sculptor Remo Bombardieri, took him to his studio. There, among the tools of the trade and encounters with other artists, he began modeling small works inspired by the animal world, which his father would then cast. After graduating from the Istituto d’Arte Caravaggio in Brescia, he found employment in a screen-printing workshop, where he worked as a graphic designer. He soon moved to Milan to work with a company specializing in the creation of scenography for theme parks, producing monumental sculptures for immersive environments. After about a year, he decided to return to his father’s studio, beginning an artistic and human partnership that would last over thirty years. Together they created scenographic, design, and applied art works, while each maintaining his own artistic direction. Since the 1990s, he has exhibited in numerous group shows in Italy and abroad.

Around the age of thirty, a deeply painful personal event profoundly marked his life, leading to a radical artistic transformation. In a group exhibition in Bordighera, he presented for the first time the work destined to become the symbol of his poetics: Il peso del tempo sospeso. A large rhinoceros appears suspended in mid-air, motionless. The inspiration came from a scene in the film E la nave va by Federico Fellini, in which a lovesick rhinoceros is transported in the hold of a steamship and harnessed to be moved onto the deck. The metaphor of suspension became the sculptural vision that has accompanied him to this day.

In 2012, following the birth of his son Francesco, his research took a new direction: he began reflecting on the future, on the legacy left to new generations, and on the fragile balances of childhood. Works such as Balancing on the Past and Marta e l’elefante were born, in which children become symbolic protagonists, poised between the past and an uncertain future.

In the 2000s, his career gained an international scope. Among the key milestones are his participation in 2007 in the exhibition Il settimo splendore – La modernità della malinconia at Palazzo della Ragione in Verona and his presence at the 52nd Venice Biennale: guest of the Padiglione della Repubblica Araba Siriana curated by Duccio Trombadori, where he presented in the cloister of San Francesco della Vigna the work Europa pallida madre. In 2008 he exhibited at the MAR – Museo d’Arte della città di Ravenna as part of Emergenze Creative. In 2009 came his major consecration in Pietrasanta with the solo exhibition The Animals’ Countdown. This was followed in 2011 by participation in the 54th Venice Biennale. In subsequent years, his monumental works reached prestigious institutions such as the Grand Palais in Paris, the Skulpturenpark in Traun, Austria, the Château Musée Grimaldi in Cagnes-sur-Mer for the Biennale UMAM, and the Deutsch Museum in Belmont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland.

His sculptures are part of important public and private collections in Italy and abroad. He collaborates with international galleries (Italy, Basel, France, England, Greece, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, USA, Canada, Lebanon).

His success in international collecting has been consolidated by participation in the most authoritative contemporary art fairs, such as Art Basel, Art Miami, and Art Paris. His exhibition activity also extends to important research contexts such as Scope Basel, the Singapore Art Fair, OFF Art Fair Bruxelles, and Art Élysées in Paris. In Italy, he has participated in Arte Fiera Bologna, while his versatility has also led him to exhibit in high-level antiques and design contexts, such as the Salon des Antiquaires in Lausanne and Art3f in the Principality of Monaco.