Francesco Arena

Francesco Arena was born in 1966 in Genoa, where he lives and works.  An artist and photographer, he has been working for years in the field of art creating projects, including site-specific ones developed in photographic series, polaroids and installations that interact with the use of objects and video projections. Based on the concept that photography captures only the surface of things, he uses the subject/object to reveal its essence. He works on the idea of "Portrait/Identity" by investigating their origin and symbolic appeal; the body/object as identity is described through the aesthetic codes of mass-media language. He has held numerous solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad and is present in many private and public collections including: Museo Ken Damy di Fotografia contemporanea, Brescia; Kunsthistorisches Institut, Archivio per l'arte italiana del Novecento, Firenze;  Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genova; Collection of Polaroid Corporation, Boston, USA; Quadriennale d'arte, Roma:The Museum of New Art (MONA) , Detroit, USA; GAM, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Genova.