Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni On Sale

Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni was born in Rome in 1967, from a Tuscan family of artists. He has shown a passion for drawing since early childhood, attending his father’s atelier and taking drawing classes from his uncle Marcello in summer at his sculpture studio in Pietrasanta. His first solo show took place in 1991 at Il Gabbiano Gallery, in Rome. In the same year, he attended the Chicago International Fair and took part in Le conchiglie (The Shells), an exhibition at the Lilia Leoni Gallery in Rome. In 1994, he joined the exhibition “Un Sogno che cambia il mondo” (A Dream that Changes the World), organized by the social affairs department of the Prime Minister’s Office. The Steltman galleries hosted Ferroni’s exhibitions in Amsterdam in 1997 and in New York in 1998. Shows were also held in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005 in Amsterdam. In 1999, a monograph was dedicated to Ferroni by the American critic Donald Kuspit.

In 2001, he took part in the exhibition Emozioni belliniane nella pittura contemporanea (Bellini emotions in contemporary painting) at the Sandro Parmeggiani Museum of Cento, near Ferrara. The same museum later hosted “Miti e Vanità, dipinti di Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni” (Myths and Vanity, paintings of Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni), an exhibition that coincided with the publication of a book on the painter written by Prof. Maria Censi. In 2009, he participated in “The great students of the Roman school of Riccardo Tommasi Ferroni” at the gallery San Marino, Arzilli palace, Republic of San Marino and in the exhibition “Francis and Clare of Assisi” at the ducal palace of Massa. In 2011, he was invited to the Venice Biennale to join two exhibitions, one in Venice (The shadow of the divine in contemporary art, artists Noto and elsewhere at Palazzo Grimani), the other in Rome (Italian Pavilion 150 years of Italian unity at Palazzo Venezia). He has taught art at the Roman Center of Liberal Arts University and at the Lorenzo de' Medici Institute of Florence. Giovanni Tommasi Ferroni currently lives and works in Rome and Pieve di Camaiore, Italy.

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.