Guglielmo Castelli

Art gives me the possibility to move on with each attempt, to straighten out doubts in order to create new ones. In those depths, I find myself, digging in. To me, this is what it means to be an artist, having the luxury of uncertainty towards ourselves, and therefore towards others. – Guglielmo Castelli

Guglielmo Castelli’s iconographic universe questions the relationship between inner and outer space, between bowels and environment, in a close relationship with literature and the world of theatre and scenography, from which he comes. Released from any constraint, figures slip and overlap on either neutral backdrops or unfamiliar landscapes, challenging the blurred boundaries of the self and resisting a strict notion and distinction between subject and object. From fluid and wide, brushstrokes coagulate into thick knots portraying melancholy, astonishment, and wonder, while characters melt into gentle chromatic accents, suspended in uncertain postures that reflect an unsteady grip on reality.

Guglielmo Castelli (b.1987, Turin, Italy) lives and works in Turin, Italy.

His recent solo shows include Improving songs for anxious children, at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy (2024); Show | Guglielmo Castelli - Art Club #38, Villa Medici, Rome, Italy (2024); A Lover's Discourse, Aspen Museum, Aspen, CO, USA (2023); Demonios Familiares, Mendes Wood DM, New York, NY, USA (2023); The Cabin LA Presents: A Curated Flashback, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX, USA (2023); Calm act in closed room, Mendes Wood DM, Brussels, Belgium (2021); Ornate Impotence, The Cabin, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2020); Sia inteso come tutto ciò che non pesa, Fondazione Coppola, Vicenza, Italy (2019); Goodmorning Bambino, KünstlerhausBethanien, Berlin, Germany (2018). 

His work was featured in several institutional presentations including Pittura Italiana Oggi, Triennale Milano, Milan, Italy (2023); mutanti, sotto un cielo che implode, OGR Torino, Turin, Italy (2023); Diario Notturno, Maxxi L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy (2023); Expressioni, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Italy (2022); the 17a Quadriennale di Roma, Rome, Italy(2020); Stasi Frenetica, GAM, Turin, Italy (2020); the Biennale Internazionale d’Art Contemporain de Melle (2018); Challenging Beauty, Parkview Museum, Singapore (2018); Recto/ Verso 2, Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France (2018); Intriguing Uncertainties, Museum Of Contemporary Art of Saint-Étienne, Saint-Étienne, France (2016); Lo sguardo delle gallerie sulla grande arte italiana, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Bologna, Italy (2016).

Castelli’s work is part of the collections of Blenheim Art Foundation, Oxfordshire, UK; By Art Matters Museum, Hangzhou, China; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; He Art Museum, Foshan, China; Long Museum, Stony Brook, New York, NY, USA; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Ostillo Collection, Austin, TX, USA; Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Blenheim Art Foundation, Woodstock, UK; the Castello di Rivoli Museum d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Italy; The George Economou Collection, Marousi, Greece; and Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.