Gianfranco Meggiato was born in Venice, where he attended the State Institute of Art, studying sculpture in stone, bronze, wood and ceramics. Meggiato’s work looks to the great masters of the 20th century: Brancusi for his search for essentiality, Moore for the interplay between interior and exterior in his maternity sculptures, and Calder for the way his works open into space. Space, in fact, enters Meggiato’s works and the void becomes as important as the solid.
Indeed, the essential is invisible to the eye: ideals, feelings and dreams cannot be touched — they can only be lived.
Meggiato models his sculptures inspired by biomorphic forms and the labyrinth, symbolising mankind’s tortuous path towards self-awareness and the discovery of its inner core. He consequently coined the concept of “intro-sculpture”, in which the observer’s gaze is drawn into the inner dimension of the work, rather than merely its external surfaces.
An artist of international status since 1998, he has taken part in exhibitions and art fairs in Italy and around the world (USA, Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Principality of Monaco, Ukraine, Russia, India, China, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong and Australia).
In 2011 and 2013 he was invited to join the Italian Pavilions at the Venice Biennale.
In 2017, Meggiato turned his attention to scientific and social issues through monumental works presented in large public installations:
“The Garden of the Silent Muses” (Catanzaro 2017), symbolically positioned in defence of our values and culture against terrorism.
“The Spiral of Life” (Palermo 2018), shown during Manifesta 12, dedicated to the innocent victims of the mafia.
“The Garden of Zyz” for Matera European Capital of Culture (2019), conceived as a meeting point between cultures often in contrast, based on the vision that everything is one.
“Quantum Man: There is No Future Without Memory” (2021), a major solo exhibition with monumental works in the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, seeking a point of contact between archaeology, philosophy and quantum physics.
“The Spiral of Life” (2022), presented for Prato City Council and the Pecci Museum, a renewed version of the installation dedicated to the victims of the mafia.
“The Breath of Form” (2022), City of Pisa, promoted by Pisa City Council and supported by the Tuscany Region, Scuola Normale Superiore and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, featuring 14 monumental works throughout the city and a solo exhibition at the Church of Santa Maria della Spina.
“The Encounter – Symbol of Peace” (2023), City of Rome, promoted by Rome Municipality I, dedicated to the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
These installations earned him the ICOMOS-UNESCO Award “for his masterful combination of the ancient and the contemporary in sculptural installations of great evocative power and aesthetic value”.
