Francesco De Grandi

Francesco De Grandi was born in Palermo in 1968 and is one of the most significant figures of contemporary Italian painting. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, he moved to Milan in 1994, where he lived and worked until 2008, before spending several years in Shanghai. He subsequently returned to Palermo, where he lives and works and where he has been teaching Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts since 2017.

Since the 1990s, De Grandi has developed a distinctive pictorial language that has established him as a central figure of the “School of Palermo”, alongside Alessandro Bazan, Fulvio Di Piazza and Andrea Di Marco. The group played a significant role in the revival and international recognition of figurative painting in Sicily and became an important presence on the Italian contemporary art scene.

His painting is deeply rooted in the history of art, yet unmistakably contemporary. De Grandi draws upon classical and Baroque traditions, mythology, literature, cinema and the observation of nature, transforming these references into an intensely personal and visionary language. His works move between the figurative and the symbolic, the real and the dreamlike, often creating atmospheres suspended between beauty, mystery and unease.

At the heart of his practice is a profound reflection on painting itself as a means of knowledge. Nature, the sacred, the human figure and archetypal imagery become vehicles for an almost meditative investigation into existence. His landscapes in particular transcend the traditional genre: nature becomes an emotional and spiritual space, sometimes majestic and sublime, sometimes dark, enigmatic and unsettling.

De Grandi's earlier works often presented disturbing figures, hybrid creatures and apocalyptic landscapes, informed by a wide range of cultural sources and rendered with remarkable technical mastery. His later production has progressively moved towards a more essential and contemplative vision, in which reduced palettes, expressive brushwork and the overwhelming presence of nature create a powerful sense of suspension and transcendence.

His career includes major institutional exhibitions, among them the XV Quadriennale d'Arte di Roma (2008), the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), and at Palazzo Riso – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Sicily in Palermo (2018). His work has also been presented at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna of Palermo, the Triennale Milano, and numerous museums, galleries and public institutions in Italy and abroad.

His work is represented in important public and private collections, including the collection of RISO – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Sicily and the Farnesina Collection.

Today, Francesco De Grandi stands out as a mature and highly individual voice in contemporary Italian painting: an artist who does not reject tradition, but continually reinterprets it, allowing the history of painting, the sacred, nature and contemporary experience to converge in a powerful and deeply evocative visual language.