IMAGINA – XXVII edizione della Biennale d’arte contemporanea di Gubbio

Bea Bonafini (Bonn, 1990) lives and works between London and Rome. She received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2014, and a MA in Painting form the Royal College of Art, London, in 2016. She works across painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, tapestry and textiles, expanding their corresponding formal interrelationships. Bonafini’s interdisciplinary practice draws from oneiric visions, overlapping personal and ancient mythologies. Her tactile, intimate worlds center around sensuality, vulnerability and fantasy, forming swirling scenarios that are fragmented and multi-layered. Figures are evanescent and transcendental, referencing spiritual imagery where fluid bodies collide, disperse, swim, fly and fall, openings to encounters between the earthly and the otherworldly. Holistic perspectives are developed in close dialogue with architecture, where space is approached as an extension to the work to envelop the viewer. Bonafini’s solo exhibitions include Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg (2022); Bosse & Baum, London (2022 and 2019); Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome (2022); Setareh Gallery, Berlin (2022); LAAA (Laboratorio de Arte, Arquitectura y Arqueología), Mexico City (2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021 and 2018); Eduardo Secci, Florence (2021); Operativa, Rome (2020); Chloe Salgado, Paris (2019); Lychee One Gallery, London (2018); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017); and Fieldworkds Gallery, London (2017). She has participated in group exhibitions at JARILAGER Gallery, Cologne (2022); Cob Gallery, London (2021); Larsen Warner, Stockholm (2020); Rolando Anselmi, Berlin (2019); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2018), amongst others. Residencies include: Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2021); Rosa Lee Travel Grant, British School at Rome (2020); Abbey Scholarship, British School at Rome (2019–20); La Berlugane-Maleki Residency and Commission Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France (2019); Platform Southwark Studio Residency, London (2018), Fibra Residency, Colombia (2018); Fieldworks Studio Residency, London (2017); Villa Lena, Toiano, Italy (2016); and The Beekeepers Residency, Castro Marim, Portugal (2015). 

Lulù Nuti (1988) lives between Rome and Paris. Expanding from sculpture and installation to drawing, Lulù Nuti’s practice is based on a strong belief in the intelligence of matter, in its power of being a vehicle for sensitive information, which go beyond the limits of words and language. Her work depicts the feeling of responsibility and powerlessness that are engendered by the age we live in and affect human beings. She experiments with various construction materials, creating sculptures and installations that dialogue with space.

After graduating from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris in 2012, Lulù Nuti has exhibited in Italy and abroad in public and private institutions including Biwako Biennale (Fairy Tale, Japan, 2012);  La Panacée (MFW, MO.CO., Montpellier, 2018); Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New Delhi (Living in the Chtulucene, India, 2019); Museo CAMUSAC (Rilevamenti 2, Cassino, 2020) and in private galleries including Galleria Alessandra Bonomo (Part 1, Rome, 2017); Galerie Italienne (La Musée, Paris, 2020); Galleria Renata Fabbri (SOTTO, Milano, 2022). In 2022 her sculpture Too much heat, nothing to eat travels around the world ( IIC New-York, USA; IIC Seoul, Corea; Changijang Museum of Contemporary Art, China ) with We Love Art, vision and creativity Made in Italy, a project promoted by Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and CDP, curated by Ludovico Pratesi and Marco Bassan.

Solo shows include the site-specific exhibition Sistema, at archeological site Case Romane del Celio (Rome, 2015) and Calcare il Mondo at Galerie Chloé Salgado (Paris, 2018). In 2018 she founded the artistic duo LU.PA together with Pamela Pintus, an artistic identity that operates through performance actions and site-specific works.

Imbued with a subtle irony toward contemporaneity, the works of Serena Vestrucci (Milan, 1986) probe the obviousness of small things, giving voice to what is often hidden, forgotten, or sidelined. Through a playful, yet direct and provocative language, the artist elevates the ambiguity to a foundational element for a more accurate understanding of reality.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Casa Gramsci, Turin; Galleria Renata Fabbri, Milan; Galleria FuoriCampo, Siena; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Verona; Museo Archeologico Salinas, Palermo; Marsèlleria Permanent Exhibition, Milan; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genova; Galleria Ottozoo, Milan. Selected group exhibitions include: Palazzo Ducale, La Biennale di Gubbio; Palazzo Merulana, Rome; Palazzo Grillo, Genova; Museo MAXXI, Rome; Fondazione Stefan Gierowski, Warsaw; Fondazione Made in Cloister, Napoli; Fondazione Imago Mundi, Treviso; Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome; Palazzo Reale, Milan; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan; Palazzo Del Medico, Carrara; Casa Testori, Novate Milanese; Blitz, Valletta, Malta; IIC, New York; IIC, London; IIC, Warsaw; IIC, Cracovia; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice; FRISE Künstlerhaus, Hamburg; Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno and Stedelijk Museum, The Netherlands. In 2017 she won the 18th edition of Premio Cairo and she was selected by the City of Milan to conceive and produce a permanent work in the frame of the public art commission ArtLine Milano.