Sandro Chia Olympic Games Beijing 2008 Original Lithography, Italy, 2008

Sandro Chia is an Italian painter and sculptor. He was born in Florence, Italy on April 20, 1946. Chia studied at the Istituto d'Arte and then at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, earning his diploma in 1969. After graduating, he traveled extensively to India, Turkey and throughout Europe before settling in Rome in 1970. Amongst his most important personal shows are exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam in 1983, the Metropolitan Museum of New York in 1984, the National Gallery of Berlin in 1984 and 1992, the Museum of Modern Art of Paris in 1984, the museums of Düsseldorf in 1984, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Florence in 2002 and the Duomo of Sant'Agostino in Pietrasanta in 2005. In 2003, the Italian State acquired three important works of his for the permanent collection of the Italian Senate at Palazzo Madama and in 2005 two monumental sculptures were acquired by the Province of Rome and placed in front of its headquarters in Via IV Novembre, Rome.