Alessandro Scarabello is an artist who lives and works between Belgium and Italy. He has exhibited widely, including at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, the PAC and Palazzo Reale in Milan, Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto and Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. Scarabello has been invited to several biennial events including the Bienal del fine del mundo in South America, the Biennial for Mediterranean Countries in Alexandria, Egypt, the Biennial of Tunis and the Biennial of young artists in Monza.
In 2020 he was awarded the 10th edition of the Ettore and Ines Fico Prize, the award promoted by the MEF Museo Ettore Fico in Torino. The Prize is devoted to a young artist selected among the ones presented at Artissima 2020.
Co-founder and co-director of MODO asbl, a cultural association in the heart of Brussels, Scarabello works with fellow-artists Serena Fineschi and Laura Viale to stimulate, enrich and renew the dialogue on the centrality and importance of the single work of art in a crowded landscape of digital imagery.
Alessandro Scarabello holds an MFA from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) of Ghent and a BFA from the Fine Arts Academy of Rome. He is represented by The Gallery Apart in Rome.
Artist statement
Painting allows me to step out from the incessant flood of human activity and watch it flow in front of me. I consider it a privilege to paint an image in a saturated landscape of digital images. I believe this is a radical position that allows me to focus on my very nature and autonomy as an individual, to interpret personal and non-personal life events through the infinite possibilities of this medium.
In my work I strive to use this perspective to radicalize painting by subtracting any literal reference from the image and bringing the viewer back to the origin of the forces that generated it. My most recent practice focuses on gestures and reduction, combining elements that are drawn from classicism, myths, theater, masks, ancient statuary and the inheritance that comes from the city of my origin: Rome. I aim to reduce these images to an essential structure and to a simplified atmosphere where they lie in a very raw state driven by invisible forces - a place where the levels of sensations are ready to be rearranged autonomously by the viewer in a continuum of the work.
CV
Lives and works between Brussels and Italy
SOLO SHOWS
2020 I Still Paint, The Gallery Apart, Rome, Italy
2019 Uppercrust, curated by Marcello Smarrelli, Palazzo della Corgna,
Castiglione del lago, Italy
2016 The Garden of Phersu, The Gallery Apart,Rome, Italy
The Gentlemen, Cecilia Jaime gallery, Ghent,Belgium
2013 Uppercrust, The Gallery Apart, Rome, Italy
2010 Nous voulons, The Gallery Apart, Rome, Italy
2009 Alessandro Scarabello at Rialtosantambrogio, c/o The Gallery Apart, Rome,
Italy
Inside3, The Gallery Apart, Rome, Italy
2006 Tre di Tre, Antica Fornace Laterizi, Serra de Conti(Ancona), Italy
2005 LifeinLines, Sala 1 c/o The Gallery Apart, Rome,Italy
GROUP SHOWS
2021 Pittura Pittura Pittura, Marignana Gallery, Venice
2020 Refolded Percorsi meta-artistici, curated by Luiss Master of Art,
Pastificio Cerere, Rome
2019 Phantasma, Francesca Antonini gallery, Rome, Italy
Silenzioso, mi ritiro a dipingere un quadro, curated by Lorenzo Madaro,
Renata Fabbri gallery, Milano, Italy
Graffiare il presente,curated by Daniele Capra, Casa Testori, Milano,
Italy
2018 L’Ora Blù, Yellow, Varese, Italy
Rendez Vous, Hans Op De Beeck Alessandro Scarabello and Serena Fineschi,
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Museeoldmastersmuseum, Brussels,
Belgium
Rendez Vous, Hans Op De Beeck Alessandro Scarabello and Serena Fineschi,
Italian Cultural Center, Brussels, Belgium
2017 You can’t, c/o Yellow/Bouquet, Varese, Italy
Grand Hotel, Surplace, Varese, Italy
Prix Mediatine, Cultural Center - Wolubilis Mediatine, Brussels, Belgium
2016 Grand Hotel, Temple University, Rome, Italy
2015 Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice,
Italy
Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin,
Italy
The Gentlemen, Cecilia Jaime gallery, Ghent, Belgium
Final show, KASK, Ghent, Belgium
Close up, Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto, Italy
Spettro, KLAN Art Space, Ghent, Belgium
What is your poison?, Croxhapox, Ghent, Belgium
Bienal del fin del mundo, 4th Edition, Mar Del Plata, Argentina;
Valparaiso, Chile; Punta Arenas, Chile; Ushuaia
2014 Don't steal my moment, collaboration of KASK-School of Arts Ghent and
Kunstacademie Düsseldorf, KASK, Ghent, Belgium
Art Revolution, Earth Sciences Museum, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
2013 Biennial of Monza for young artists, Villa Reale, Monza, Italy
Tw(in)er, c/o Ex Elettrofonica gallery, Internazionali BNL Italia, Central
Stadium, Foro Italico, Rome, Italy
2012 Centro Periferia, Federculture, group show of the winners, Palazzo delle
Esposizioni, Rome, Italy
Combat Prize, group show of the finalists, Museo Civico G. Fattori,
Leghorn, Italy
2011 GarageZero, GarageZero, Rome, Italy
2010 Slaves, Palladium Theater, Rome, Italy
Impresa Pittura, curated by Raffaele Gavarro and Claudio Libero Pisano,
CIAC – International Center
for Contemporary Art, Genazzano (Rome) , Italy
Image et Mirage, 6th Biennial of Tunis, Palais Khereddine, Tunis, Tunisia
2009 Aftermath, 25th Biennial for Mediterranean Countries, Alexandria Art
Museum, Alexandria, Egypt
Nuove Creatività del Mondo, Federculture, Italian Chamber of Deputies,
Rome, Italy
Studiovisit, A review on works by Italian artists, SPACE Galeria Priestor
c/o 26cc, Bratislava, Slovakia
2008 Streams of consciousness, curated by Cecilia Casorati, Palazzo Grassi,
Chioggia (Venice),
Italy Experimenta – The Farnesina Collection, Italian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Rome, Italy
Studiovisit, A review on works by Italian artists, 91mq Art Project Space
c/o 26cc, Berlin, Germany
UP-ART, The Gallery Apart, Rome, Italy
2007 Confronti, Federculture, Rome, Italy
Nuovi Pittori della Realtà, PAC – Contemporary Arts Pavilion, Milan, Italy
Nuovi Realisimi, 58th edition of Premio Michetti, Michetti Foundation,
Francavilla al Mare, Italy
Spazi Aperti 5, Academy of Romania, Rome, Italy
2006 Futuro/Presente – Nuove Creatività del Mondo, Federculture, Rome, Italy
2004 Architetture, Franco Maria Ricci Library, Milan, Italy
2003 Giovane Figurazione, Palazzo della Permanente, Milan, Italy
2002 L’Aldilà nel mondo islamico e occidentale, Red Castle of Tripoli, Libya
2001 Visione intima, Linee della figurazione contemporanea, National Library of
Tripoli, Libya
ART FAIRS (selection)
2020 Artissima, Exhibited artists: Alessandro Scarabello, Corinna Gosmaro,
Federica di Pietrantonio, Florian Noifeldt, Marco strappato, Sinae Yoo,
Turin, Italy
Arte Fiera, Painting XXI, Exhibited artists: Alessandro Scarabello,
Corinna Gosmaro, Bologna, Italy
2018 Artissima, Exhibited artists: Alessandro Scarabello, Bertille Bak, Corinna
Gosmaro, Turin, Italy
2016 Miart, Exhibited artists: Alessandro Scarabello, Domink Lang, Oliver
Ressler, Milan, Italy
2013 ArteFiera, Exhibited artists: Alessandro Scarabello, Alice Schivardi,
Astrid Nippoldt, Diego Iaia, Luana Perilli, Marco Strappato, Milan, Italy
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2020 Ettore e Ines Fico Prize, (Winner), 2020 Artissima Awards, Turin,
Italy
2019 Premio Cairo, 20th edition, (Finalist),Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
2017 Prix Mediatine, Wolubilis Mediatine,(Selected), Brussels, Belgium
2015 Bocs Residency Program 2015, Cosenza (I)
2012 Combat Prize, 3rd edition, (Finalist), Leghorn,
Italy
2010 Terna Prize, 3rd edition, (Finalist), Rome, Italy
2009 Terna Prize, 2nd edition, (Finalist), Rome, Italy
2008 Terna Prize, 1st edition, (Finalist), Rome, Italy
2007 Nuovi Realisimi, 58th edition of Premio Michetti,
Francavilla al Mare, Italy
2006 Centro Periferia, Federculture, International Prize
for Young Artists, 1st edition (Winner), Rome,
Italy
2005 Premio Celeste, 2nd edition, (Finalist), San
Gimignano (Siena), Italy
2003 Premio Cairo, 4th edition, (Finalist), Milan, Italy
2000 Urban landscape extemporary painting award, 1st
edition (Winner), Italian Central Office for
Environmental and Landscape Heritage, Ex Mattatoio,
Rome, Italy