Paolo Ventura Explained

Paolo Ventura
Birth Date:1968
Birth Place:Milan, Italy
Nationality:Italian
Occupation:photographer, artist and set designer

Paolo Ventura (born 1968, Milan, Italy) is an Italian photographer, artist and set designer based in Milan.

Life and work

Ventura grew up in Milan with summers spent in the hilltops of Eastern Tuscany. His father, Piero Ventura, was a children's book author during the 1970s and 1980s. At the end of the 1980s, Ventura attended the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera.[1]

At the beginning of the 1990s he started working as a fashion photographer. In a few years he was working with fashion magazines such as Elle, MarieClaire, Amica, Vogue Gioiello, among others.[2]

Toward the end of the 1990s, ten years into his career, Ventura gradually stepped out of the world of fashion photography and he moved to New York to pursue his personal artistic path. In his studio in Brooklyn he began to build and photograph small dioramas about World War II in Italy, based on memories and tales from his grandmother.[3]

In 2006 Contrasto published “War Souvenirs", a collection of this work, with a foreword by the American writer Francine Prose.[4]

The work was followed by a number of exhibitions worldwide.

The BBC included Ventura's works in the documentary about photography: “The Genius of Photography” (2007).

Three years later, he began his second major project: “Winter Stories” (2009), which became a book published by Aperture with a foreword by Eugenia Perry.[5]

In that same period he began to work with different galleries in NY and in Europe followed by exhibitions and acquisitions from Museums and Photographic Institutions from around the world. In 2010 the Library of Congress of the U.S. acquired a collection of 142 Polaroids from his "War Souvenirs" series[6] and the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston acquired in its permanent collection a print from his "Winter Stories".[7]

In the following years he created other projects like “The Automaton”, published by Dewi Lewis in 2012 and “Behind The Walls” by Danilo Montanari Editore.

In 2010 he moved back to Italy, to Anghiari, a small town in Tuscany. There, in an old studio in the countryside, he began work on his project “Short Stories” using his family as his photographic subjects.[8] In 2016 Aperture published a collection of this work in a book titled “Short Stories”.

In 2012 the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome (MACRO) presented a solo exhibition of Ventura's work titled "Lo Zuavo Scomparso". A book by the same name is published by Punctum.

Canadian filmmaker Helen Doyle included the work of Ventura in her 2013 movie “An Ocean of Images” In the same year the Swiss Television dedicated a short documentary to Ventura's work that was transmitted on Swiss National Television.

In 2015, the Dutch documentary film-maker, Erik Van Empel, directed a full-length documentary on Ventura titled “Paolo Ventura: The Vanishing Man” which won The Prix Italia in 2016 as the best movie in the TV Performing Arts category.[9]

In the same year, Ventura began his first collaboration in theater.[10] Working with director Rob Ashford, he realized the scenography for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.[11]

In 2018, Ventura continued his work in theater, collaborating with director Gabriele Lavia, to create the set design and costumes for Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera “Pagliacci” at the Teatro Regio in Turin.[12]

Bibliography

Exhibitions

Main solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Paolo Ventura at Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York Artinfo. Artinfo. 2018-03-21. en.
  2. News: Paolo Ventura. 2013-10-17. Photographica Fine Art Gallery ENG. it-IT. 2017-02-03.
  3. Web site: Paolo Ventura. A futurist magician Mart. www.mart.trento.it. 2017-02-03.
  4. Web site: The F STOP » Professional Photographers Discuss Their Craft » Article Archive » Paolo Ventura. www.thefstopmag.com. 2017-01-27.
  5. Web site: Paolo Ventura. The New Yorker. 2017-01-27.
  6. Web site: Polaroid & prime stampe, 2006. Ventura. Paolo.. 1 January 2006. loc.gov. 31 January 2017.
  7. News: Winter Stories, #36 (The Tightrope Walker). 2016-10-27. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. en. 2017-02-01.
  8. Web site: Paolo Ventura Mixes Theater and Photography in His Mesmerizing 'Short Stories'. FotoRoom. en-US. 2017-01-31.
  9. News: VINCITORE PRIX ITALIA 2016 - TV PERFORMING ARTS - Prix Italia Ita -. Rai. 2017-01-27.
  10. News: Paolo Ventura Designs a 'Carousel'. Erik. Piepenburg. 27 April 2015. 31 January 2017. The New York Times.
  11. Web site: Deeply felt emotion powers Lyric's 'Carousel'. Chris. Jones. chicagotribune.com. 30 January 2017.
  12. Web site: Pagliacci - Teatro Regio di Torino. teatroregio.torino.it. 30 January 2017.
  13. Web site: The enigmatic photography by Paolo Ventura - The Eye of Photography. 26 October 2016. loeildelaphotographie.com. 31 January 2017.
  14. Web site: Amsterdam : Paolo Ventura, Mystique narratives - The Eye of Photography. loeildelaphotographie.com. 31 January 2017.
  15. Web site: Paolo Ventura's Short Stories. The New Yorker. 26 January 2017. 9 February 2015.
  16. Web site: Paolo Ventura - The Eye of Photography. 18 June 2014. loeildelaphotographie.com. 31 January 2017.
  17. Web site: Vero, verissimo, anzi possibile. Repubblica.it. Fotocrazia. 2017-02-03.

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