Valerio Adami

The artist

Born in 1935 in Bologna, Valerio Adami is a leading figure in the Narrative Figuration movement. His acrylic paintings are characterised by blocks of colour outlined in black evoking the themes of travel, music, literature and theatre. The notion of mystery is expressed in the many literary references that populate the paintings, a notion that always plays a central role in his work, which he defines as a philosophical questioning.


Exhibitions

Biography

Birth Born in 1935 in Bologna, Italy
Residence Lives and works between Paris, Monte Carlo and Meina, Italy
Education 1955
Académie des Beaux-Arts de Brera, Milan, Italy

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022 Valerio Adami, TEMPLON, Paris, France
Valerio Adami - Immagine e pensiero, Dep Art Gallery, Milan, Italy
2020 Valerio Adami, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
2019 Camilla et Valerio Adami, Espace Jacques Villeglé, Saint Gratien, France
The 80s, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2018 Adami : lignes de vie, Musée Jean Cocteau, Collection Séverin Wunderman, Menton, France
2017 Valerio Adami, Galleria L'Incontro, Chiari, Bs, Italy
Valerio Adami - The Narrative Line, The Mayor Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Voir plus

2016 Valerio Adami, Secession, Vienna, Austria
Transfigurations, Chapelle Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Malo, France
De la ligne à la couleur, Le Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France
Valerio Adami, TEMPLON, Brussels, Belgium
Valerio Adami, Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italy
2015 Great retrospective Valerio Adami’s 80th birthday, Turin Museum, Turin, Italy ; Mantua Museum, Mantua, Italy
Valerio Adami, Centre d’art contemporain à cent mètres du centre du monde, Perpignan, France
2014 Valerio Adami, Disegnare, Dipingere, Galeria André, Roma, Italy
Valerio Adami, Centre d’art graphique de la Métairie Bruyère, Parly, France
2013 Mosaïques, Ravenna Museum of Art, Ravenna, Italy
Valerio Adami, Aquarelles, Galerie Biasutti, Turin, Italy
2012 Tableaux et dessins, Galerie Hass Ag, Zürich, Switzerland
New Painting – Photographic Work from the Sixties, TEMPLON, Paris, France
Figure nel tempo, Galleria Tega, Milan, Italy
Œuvres graphiques, Nev, Ankara, Turkey
Valerio Adami, les années 1960, Galerie Laurent Strouk, Paris, France
2011 Quadri di lettura, Padiglione Italia, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Drawings, Galleria Usher arte, via della Zecca 15, Lucques, Italy
Paintings, Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea, Lucques, Italy
Watercolours, Lucca Center of Contemporary Art, Lucques, Italy
Opere 1971 – 2010, Museo Provinciale di Lecce, Lucques, Italy
Galerie IUFM, 11th contemporary art biennale of Lyon, Lyon, France
2010 Pinacoteca Comunale Casa Rusca, Locarno, Italy
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Miami, USA
Dessins, Impasse Beaubourg, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2009 Valerio Adami: Postlude, The Mayor Gallery, London, UK
2008 Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
2007 Jusqu’ici, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2006 Valerio Adami, Galleria Biasutti Giampiero, Turin, Italy
Adami d’après Adami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal
2005 Valerio Adami, Fondation d’entreprise espace écureuil pour l’art contemporain, Toulouse, France
2004 Préludes et après-ludes, TEMPLON, Paris, France
Valerio Adami – Rétrospective, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
2002 Marlborough Gallery, New York City, USA
Valerio Adami, Marlborough Monaco, Monaco
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2000 Valerio Adami – Opere 1990–2000, Galleria dello Scudo, Verona, Italy
1999 Pop Art, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Teheran, Iran
La raccolta Spajani, GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
1998 Adami, Umberto du marino, Giuliano in Campania, Italy
Museo de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1996 Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan, Italy
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
1994 Magazzini del Sale, Sienne, Italy
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy
Valerio Adami, rétrospective, Bochum Museum, Bochum, Germany
1990 IVAM, Centro Julio Gonzales, Valencia, Spain
1986 Valerio Adami, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
1985 Valerio Adami, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1984 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York City, USA
1983 Galerie Maeght, Paris, France
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1979 Museo d’Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Retrospective, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1978 Dessins, Transgaarden de Hellrup, Copenhagen, Denmark
1976 Galerie Maeght, Barcelona, Spain
CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
1975 Galerie Maeght, Zürich, Switzerland
1973 Valerio Adami – Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
1972 Galerie Maeght, Zürich, Switzerland
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, Germany
1970 Rétrospective, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Galerie Maeght, Zürich, Switzerland
1966 Galleria Schwartz, Milan, Italy
Galleria Marconi, Milan, Italy
Brussels Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
1964 Galerie Krugier, Geneva, Switzerland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022 Collection Collective ACMCM, à cent mètres du centre du monde, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Perpignan, France
2021 No More Boring Art! The Other Side, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium
Dérives, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Narrative Figuration 60s – 70s, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York City, USA
2020 Figurez-vous… Adami, Erro, Guyomard, Klassen, Palais des Arts et du Festival, Dinard, France
“Nous sommes faits de l’étoffe de nos rêves et notre petite vie est entourée de sommeil”, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Arte moltiplicata, Gió Marconi Gallery, Milan, Italy

Voir plus

2019 Un monde, un seul, pour demeure, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France
Histoire de l’art cherche personnages…, CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
Demons in Line, Team Gallery, New York City, USA
The Pictionary individual, Harkawik, Los Angeles, USA
2018 Io sono una poesia. Parole sui muri e le arti negli anni Sessanta tra Modena e Reggio Emilia, Musei Civici di Modena, Modena, Italy
Testimonianze - Composizioni Materiche E Oggettuali Dagli Anni ’60 Ad Oggi, Galleria d'Arte 2000 & Novecento, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Pictures without Shadows - A selection from the Kemp Collection, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
2017 40th anniversary. Twentieth Century Art Collection. 1977-2017, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Alicante (MACA), Alicante, Spain
HOP!, Musée d'Ixelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
Exposition de l’été, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Giugno Italiano, nm>contemporary, Monaco, Monaco
Landscapes. Declinazioni in giallo e in verde, Galleria d'Arte 2000 & Novecento, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Nummeriert Und Handsigniert - Ausgewaehlte Graphik Und Skulptur, Die Galerie – Frankfurt, Germany
Georges Pompidou, Une aventure du regard et de l’art, Domaine national de Chambord, France
La Nouvelle Figuration Européenne : 1964 - 1976, Galerie du Griffon, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Mondalité, Fondation Boghossian-Villa Empain, Bruxelles, Belgium
2016 ROSSO, Anna Maria Consadori, Milan, Italy
Sternstunde - 100 Zeichnungen, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
Italia Pop. L’Arte Negli Anni Del Boom, Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Parme, Italy
Minimenta 2016, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Perdidos en la ciudad/ La vida urbana en las colecciones del IVAM, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain
Italian Pop, Tornabuoni Art London, London, UK
Adami, Del Pezzo, Schifano, Tadini (50 anni dopo…), Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italy
Juste pour le plaisir (A&B), Centre d’art contemporain à cent mètres du centre du monde, Perpignan, France
2015 The Silo, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York City, NY, USA
Cart(E), Galleria Cart, Monza, Italy
1965-2015. 50 anni dallo Studio Marconi alla Fondazione Marconi, Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italiy
Arte contemporáneo en la colección Himalaya, Museo de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
Figuration Narrative : Paris 1960-1975, Art Collection S.à r.l, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
INTIMATE SPHERES, MA Galerie, Paris, France
2014 Figuration narrative, Adami, Erro, Klasen, Monory, Morteyrol, Velickovic, Atelier Gabrielle, Salernes, France
Estampes et œuvres sur papier, Galerie Atelier 28, Lyon, France
2013 Collection LGR, MAMAC, Nice, France
Foire Européenne d’Art Contemporain, Parc des expositions, Strasbourg, France
2010 Arte Svelata, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy
2009 Riccardo Licata e gli amici di Venezia e Parigi, Palazzo della Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin, Italy
Pop, Polit und Pin ups. Pop Art Grafik aus der Sammlung Beck, Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen, Bietigheim- Bissingen, Germany
Fixsterne: 100 Jahre Kunst auf Papier, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany
Hot Spots, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ; Milan, Turin, Italy ; Los Angeles, USA ; Zürich, Switzerland
Passion d’art, Collection privées Musée Éphémère, Montélimar, France
Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968–2008, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2008 La Figuration narrative, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Signe écriture signe, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Liège, Belgium
Time & Place, Milano–Torino 1958–1968, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Camilla et Valério Adami, Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon’s house, Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, France
2007 Arte italiana 1968–2007 Pittura, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
2006 Selecció del fons de la galeria, Art Vall, Andorra la Vella, Andora
Italian Pop, Mayor Gallery, London, UK
Artists and Their Models, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, China
Arbeiten auf Papier, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
Marlborough Monaco, Monaco
2005 Anthropography III, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
Obras Maestras del Siglo XX en las Colecciones del IVAM, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
Hommage à Matisse, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium
Bologna contemporanea, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
Eye of the Storm: The IMMA Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Pop Art Italia, Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena, Italy
2004 Suggestioni astratte e figurative, Galleria d’Arte 2000 & Novecento, Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy
Walter Benjamin und die Kunst der Gegenwart / Schrift – Bilder – Denken, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany
Christmas Art Gifts, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium
Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
2003 Anthropogeography – The Human Figure at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
Marlborough Monaco, Monaco
2000 Une ville – une collection, Centre de la gravure et de l’image imprimée, La Louvière, France
1996 Festival de Spoleto, Perugia, Italy
Acquisitions récentes du Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Casino Luxembourg, Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
1995 46th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1989 Une histoire de collection : dons 1984–1989, Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada
1988 Gran Pavese, The Flag Project, M HKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
1987 Hommage à Ferrari, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
1985 13th Paris Biennale, Paris, France
1978 Le Disque, médium artistique : du futurisme à l’art conceptuel, Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada
From Nature to Art, from Art to Nature, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1977 Documenta IV, Kassel, Germany
1968 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1964 Documenta III, Kassel, Germany
I Massacri privati, Galleria Schwartz, Milan, Italy
1961 Italian Artists, Cambridge Art Association, Boston, USA
1960 Young Italian Painters, Kamakura Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Japan

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)

Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, Germany
Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Musée des beaux-arts, Bruxelles, Belgium
Musée d’art moderne, Liège, Belgium
Museum van Heedendaagse Kunst, Gand, Belgium
IVAM – Museo de Arte Moderno, Valence, Spain
Fondaccion Miro, Barcelone, Spain

Voir plus

Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis, US
Museum of Modern Art, Pittsburg, US
Mc. Crory Corporation, New York City, US
Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum, Turku, Finland
Maija and Urpo Lahtinen Foundation, Villa Urpo, Tampere, Finland
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris, France
Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
Musée d’art moderne de Grenoble, Grenoble, France
Musée d’art moderne, Saint-Étienne, France
Musée Cantini d’art moderne de Marseille, Marseille, France
Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Musée Picasso, Antibes, France
Musée de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Frissiras Museum, Athènes, Greece
Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israël
Museo d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
Museo d’Arte Moderna Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bergamo, Italy
Rotterdam Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Musée Bernardo, Lisbon, Portugal
Museo de Arte Moderno, Caracas, Venezuela
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy

Press Release

Il Giornale Dell'Arte - juillet 2022

Alla Galleria Templon, Valerio Adami

Artforum.com - octobre 2019

Valerio Adami

Ingrid Luquet-Gad


Le journal des arts - octobre 2019

Adami en lac Majeure

Henry-François Debailleux

La Gazette Drouot - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami : les années '80

Alain Quemin

L'Oeil - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami

V. DE


Achetezdel'art.com - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami, les années 80

Jean-Luc Chalumeau

Slash-Paris.com - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami : Les années 80

Connaissance des arts - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami, nouveau mythe de la peinture


La Gazette Drouot - avril 2018

Valerio Adami, une cartographie intérieure

Valérie-Marie Marchand

Arts Libre (La Libre Belgique) - novembre 2016

Chez Templon, fringant jubilaire : La poésie d'Adami

Claude Lorent

MAD (Le soir) - novembre 2016

Valerio Adami, le trait de la pensée

Aliénor Debrocq


Focus Le Vif - octobre 2016

L'oeuvre de la semaine: les mots de Valerio Adami

Guy Gilsoul

Journal des Arts - novembre 2015

Valerio Adami, Portrait

Eric Tariant

Journal des Arts - mai 2012

Nouvelle Figuration : Adami en Vintage


Libération - avril 2012

Les premiers plans de Valerio Adami

Brigitte Ollier

Gazette - janvier 2010

Valerio Adami, dessins 2007-2009

Libération - aout 2006

Valerio Adami

Henri-Francois Debailleux


L'oeil - novembre 2004

Valerio Adami, vers l'extase

Marie du Bouchet

Art Actuel - novembre 2004

Valerio Adami

Jean-Pierre Frimbois

News

Valerio Adami
PITTORE D’IDEE – MILAN

Solo Show

Palazzo Reale, Milan
From July 17 to September 22, 2024

Palazzo Reale presents Pittore d’Idee, Valerio Adami’s solo show curated by Marco Meneguzzo, that celebrates sixty-five years of research. Behind straightforward images is hidden a more complex narrative: the Adami’s artworks are rich in sophisticated visual metaphors, and they include philosophical, literary and mythological concepts, representing the evolution of ideas through the European and Western thought.

Valerio Adami
Philippe Cognée
Gérard Garouste
Pierre et Gilles
« MOI JE » – GROUP SHOW

Biennale de l’UNAM (Union Méditerranéenne pour l’Art Moderne)
Château-Musée Grimaldi, Haut-de-Cagnes – Place du Château, Cagnes-sur-Mer
From June 12, 2021 to January 3, 2022

The UNAM Biennale gathers around forty artists who illustrate with originality and talent their vision of “Moi, Je” and its present and future challenges in the mutations of an obviously dangerous society and withdrawal into oneself.

Valerio Adami
FIGUREZ-VOUS… ADAMI, ERRO, GUYOMARD, KLASEN – GROUP SHOW

From December 12, 2020 to March 7, 2021,Palais des Arts et du Festival, 2 Boulevard Wilson, 35800 Dinard, France

The exhibition is dedicated to the artistic movement  of Narrative Figuration. It brings together four masters of contemporary art, Adami, Erró, Guyomard and Klasen, whose works are preserved in hundreds of museums around the world and by great collectors.

Valerio Adami
CAMILLA & VALERIO ADAMI – GROUP SHOW

ESPACE JACQUES VILLEGLE, SAINT GRATIEN, FRANCEFrom 03/10/2019 to 07/12/2019

Valerio Adami
ITALIAN WEEK “LA BELLEZZA” – SOLO SHOW

ARRONDISSEMENT TOWN HALL, PARIS, FRANCE From 24/06/2019 to 2/07/2019

Valerio Adami
ADAMI : LIGNES DE VIE – SOLO SHOW

MUSEE JEAN COCTEAU, MENTON, FRANCE From 02/06/2018 to 05/11/2018 

Museum Jean Cocteau in Menton presents a major exhibition of Valerio Adami, gathering  a body of paintings, drawings and photographs from the late 1960s until today. Born in Bologna in 1935, Adami is a painter, a drawer and a printmaker. After his first solo exhibition in Milano (1957) when he was still very largely influenced by Roberto Matta’s surrealism, the artist soon followed the  path of European New Figuration and Narrative Figuration Oscillating in between line and colour as well as in between drawing and painting, Valerio Adami’s work  can be perceived as a kind of writing in itself,  an exploration through mythology, poetry and the intimacy of an artist. The museum Jean Cocteau / collection Séverin Wunderman, proposes a journey through the artist’s half a century creation.

Valerio Adami
GEORGES POMPIDOU, UNE AVENTURE DU REGARD ET DE L’ART – GROUP SHOW

DOMAINE NATIONAL DE CHAMBORD, FRANCEFrom 6/18/2017 to 11/19/2017

In 2017, Chambord collaborates with the Centre Pompidou, as part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the institution with an exhibition dedicated to Georges Pompidou, the former French president and creator of the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition will bring together more than 90 artworks – rarely displayed – by 67 artists, including Adami, Arman, César.

Valerio Adami
MONDIALITé – GROUP SHOW

FONDATION BOGHOSSIAN-VILLA EMPAIN, BELGIUM, BRUSSELS From 4/19/2017 to 8/27/2017

Mondialité focuses on Edouard Glissant and his inspiring call for a global dialogue that does not erase local cultures. In our current moment, there is much to remind of the international debates swirling around cosmopolitanism at the beginning of the 20th century. Curator : Hans Ulrich Obrist, Asad Raza Artistes : Adonis, Valerio Adami, Etel Adnan, Sophia Al-Maria, Kader Attia, Miquel Barcelo, Alighiero Boetti, Daniel Boyd, Edith Dekyndt, Manthia Diawara, Simone Fattal, Geneviève Gallego,Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Koo Jeong A, Wifredo Lam, Ranjana Leyendecker, Roberto Matta, Steve McQueen, Otolith Group, Walter Price, Raqs Media Collective, Adrián Villar Rojas et Antonio Segui, Sylvie Sema.