Bruno Ceccobelli

Bruno Ceccobelli (born 2 September 1952) is an Italian painter and sculptor.

He currently resides and works in Todi, Italy.

Ceccobelli was one of the six artists of the Nuova Scuola Romana or Scuola di San Lorenzo, an artistic movement that grew out of the Arte Povera and Transavanguardia movements of the latter twentieth century.

He wrote: "I do not want to be a market-fan artist, but to belong to all times, and this is why I believe in a foreseeing art, not just historical or literary or sociological or stylistic. I believe in a symbolic art, capable to offer a message and to pacify the world".

In 1971, he first took part in a group exhibition in the Town Hall of Albach, Austria, and, six years later, he had his first solo exhibition at the Alternative Space Gallery in Rome, where he exhibited works of conceptual art.

He also participated in two group exhibitions at La Stanza, an independent space self-managed by young artists.

In the following years he had a number of international exhibitions: in 1979, at the Festival of Italian Culture in Belgrade and, subsequently, group exhibitions in France, Germany, and Croatia.

At Yvon Lambert in Paris he exhibited Morpheus.

In the early 1980s, Ceccobelli and other artists settled in the former Pastificio Cerere, a large abandoned industrial space located in the San Lorenzo quarter in Rome.

The group, known as the New Roman School or San Lorenzo Workshop, included Piero Pizzi Cannella, Marco Tirelli, Giuseppe Gallo, Gianni Dessì, Nunzio Di Stefano and Domenico Bianchi.

The Italian art critic Achille Bonito Oliva wrote that these artists were "all bearers of individual poetics and all streams towards a common aesthetic mentality and a moral vision of art".

Works on Paper 1980-2010”, organized by R. Rodriguez, at the Museum of Abruzzo People (Pescara 2010), which, for the first time ever, shows Ceccobelli's main graphic works.

In the same year the Anfiteatro Arte Gallery (Padova) organizes the retrospective “Early Works”, which gives a survey of the extraordinary period between 1982 and 1992.

The 1990s started with exhibitions in Germany, Austria, Canada and Italy.

In 1994 he was invited to give a training course at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Artes in Senegal, an experience that would leave a deep influence in his life.

In 1999 Arturo Schwarz is the curator of Ceccobelli's exhibition “Trascorsi d’Asfalto” at the Guastalla Centro Arte Gallery (Livorno) and in the same year he exhibits in Bilbao (Luis Borgus)

During the Jubilee Year (2000) he is entrusted with the realization of the huge portals in iron corten and bronze for the Cathedral of Terni, in Italy.

In 2002 Ceccobelli celebrates at the B.M.B. Gallery his twenty years of exhibitions in Dutch Galleries.

The next year he publishes the book Color Bellezza, a collection of his essays expressing his longing for a forthcoming aesthetic society.

In 2004 Ceccobelli realizes the mosaic “Eternity is the true healer” in Gibellina (Sicily) and the year after the Guastalla Gallery in Livorno presents the anthological exhibition “Big Works 1989-2005”.

In the same year he writes the book Tempo senza tempo della pittura, which is a collection of comparisons about yesterday's and today's artists, an opportunity to theorize his aesthetical arguments.

Also in 2005 he holds his important solo-exhibition “Classico Eclettico” at the Archeological Museum of Villa Adriana in Tivoli (Roma).

In 2005 he is appointed as Director of the Academy of fine arts “Pietro Vannucci” of Perugia, Italy.

In 2006 Ceccobelli presents a series of marble sculptures in Verona and in Pietrasanta at the gallery Spirale Arte, and participates in the important group exhibition “San Lorenzo” at Villa Medici (Roma).

Among the most recent exhibitions to be noted are “Longa Marcia post-temporale” (Volume! Roma 2007), “Invasi” (Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Roma), “Attici unici” (Attico of Fabio Sargentini, Roma 2009), and the impressive “Natalis in Urbe” (Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Roma 2009).

Also in 2009, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MaRT) of Rovereto presented the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to the Officina San Lorenzo, which traced the history of that group.

The exhibition catalogue, was published by Silvana Editorale and edited by Daniela Lancioni.

In 2010 he takes part of the group-exhibition at the Limen 895 Gallery “San Lorenzo, la soglia del’arte”, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva (Roma) and is in the 16th Biennale of contemporary sacred art organized by the Italian Foundation Staurós (Isola del Gran Sasso).

Also to be remembered is the exhibition “In carta sogni.

In 2010 Ceccobelli publishes his third book, Gratiaplena.

Economia della grazia, which contains his spiritual legacy in the form of a collection of inspired writings on aesthetic and society.

Among the numerous events in 2011, we must cite the exhibition “Schöne Träume” (Rovereto), in which the artist tries to capture the beauty of the dreams impressed on pillow cases.

It is also the year of the participation in the important exhibition “Grandi opere…grandi” at the Marconi Foundation (Milan) and in the Lazio Stand at the Venice Biennale (curated by Vittorio Sgarbi).

In 2012 Ceccobelli presents his solo-exhibition “Eroi d’Eros” (Catania), which collects 101 erotic drawings, then at the Museum of modern Art in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2013).

Among the group-exhibitions we point out the show held at the Galerie Placido (Paris), in which he is presented together with his friends Dessì, Nunzio, Gallo, Pizzi and Cannella.

In Padova, October 2012, he sets up “Con passi Dorati” (at the oratorio di San Rocco) a site specific show supported by Padova Council hall.

In 2013 an important solo-exhibition is “209-Icona from NYC”, in Novara in the gallery Nunzio Sorrenti with small works from the '80.

“Gli anni '70 a Roma”, organised by Daniela Lancioni and presented at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma is the group-exhibition that closes the year 2013.

In 2014 the solo exhibitions are: “Summa Felix” in Cosenza at the Vertigo Arte Cultural Association, full of his pictorial well known symbols; furthermore “Terra Cotta” at the municipal space La Rinascente in Padova, with an anthology on the twenty-years production of his ceramics, and with the participation of his sons Auro and Celso; and "Port'Ostensorio" at the Susanna Orlando gallery in Pietrasanta with some consecrated host-shaped paintings blessed by art.

In December 2014 a collective "Fuoco nero" - Materia e struttura attorno e dopo Burri, organised by A. C. Quintavalle, presented at the Scuderie in Pilotta, Parma.