Alessandro Gallo is an Italian artist currently based in Helena, Montana. His work was featured in the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. In 2012, he was awarded a 1st place grant from the Virginia Groot Foundation. He has shown internationally and had solo shows in 2014 and 2016 in New York with Jonathan Levine Gallery.
Artist Statement: Animals always evoke strong associations that make them ideal in portraying, sometimes humorously, our basic disposition or nature. Some animals have a long cultural history while others display biological features that can be extended metaphorically to humans, which is why they’ve been used to embody intangible values and vices across all ages and cultures in numberless stories and myths. Donkeys are stubborn, eagles are noble, pigs are greedy. Every language has numberless connections between animals and abstract states expressed in popular idioms like ‘monkey business’, ‘elephant’s memory’, ‘culture vulture’, ‘rat race’ and so on. The chameleon can change skin color and has eyes that move indipendently allowing to see in all directions. Those are perfect qualities for an opportunist. Some animals are carnivores, other vegeterian. Some chase, others run away. Some thrive in swamps and some crawl in the desert. I combine the animal head and the meanings they evoke with the silent language of our body and the cultural codes of fashion in order to portray some indivuduals, the larger subcultures they belong to and the habitat we share.
© Alessandro Gallo | Artist Biography, Artworks & Gallery | www.alessandrogallo.net/
