History
Enrico Barbera is an Italian artist, painter and sculptor.
At 17, whilst travelling in Greece and Turkey, he first became familiar with Classical Art. A master craftsman introduced him to sculpture through his teachings.
In the early 70s, he travelled through Iran and stopped in Northern Afghanistan in the caravan town of Tashgurkan, known as “The Town of the Soul”.
Exhibitions
1977 First exhibition at Omar Ronda’s art gallery “Il Tritone” in Biella: he exhibited an elemental sculpture with a small glass ball, containing his breath, at its core.
1978 At the Cavellini gallery in Brescia, he presented a star-shaped pyramid in bronze.
He became acquainted with the Buddhist and Hindu cultures whilst travelling from Thailand to Sumatra, Nias, Java and Bali.
1979 At Luciano Inga’s Diagramma art gallery in Milan, a meeting point for the International avant-garde, he showed a golden wood sculpture lit by 25 small lights embedded in a large decorated panel.
1980 At an exhibition at Paolo Minetti’s “Forma” art gallery in Genoa, he exhibited a large wooden sculpture with a painting of a large “Nocturnal” triptych.
1981 During the exhibition hosted at Adrian Cavallieri’s gallery in Bologna, he displayed a large oil painting: “Le Grand Maître des formes sensibles”.
Together with “ I Nuovi – nuovi” group, he began to take part in all of this group’s important exhibitions in Italy and abroad, from GAM in Bologna to the “Postmodern Icons” itinerant exhibition in Italian cultural centres in Canada and the United States, including Holly Solomon’s Gallery in New York.
1982 He was present at the “Rationalist Design” exhibition curated by Roberto Lambarelli at Promotrice delle Belle Arti in Turin.
Exhibition of paintings at Christian Stein gallery in Turin.
Tommaso Trini, the curator of “Aperto 82”, invited him to show his works at the Giudecca building shipyards in Venice. Julian Schnabel and Anish Kapoor were joint exhibitors at “Aperto 82”, Venice Biennale.
1984 Exhibition at Studio Marconi in Milan, a ceramic face in bas-relief is inserted in one of the paintings.
In his adoptive town of Milan, he became friends with Lisa Ponti and many other artists, including Vincenzo Agnetti.
He had a productive encounter with Giò Ponti, the architect. In New York, together with Vincenzo Agnetti, he hung out with Les Levine and Arakawa and, on the occasion of later trips, he met other artists such as Matt Mullican.
His love for sailing led him to take part in sailing trips, reaching as far as New Caledonia and Australia.
1989/1990 saw the beginning of his stint at ceramic sculpting in Albisola and large bronze casts at Pietrasanta; he also made a few serpentine stone sculptures.
He took part in a ceramic exhibition organized by Franco Dante Tiglio at Villa Gavotti, Albisola.
He developed an interest in majolica painting (White Blue).
1991 Show at Claudio Ruggeri’s “Pinta” gallery, called Miracles, where he displayed canvases with mauve bezels and teaspoons.
1995 ‘I nuovi nuovi’ exhibition at GAM in Turin.
Period devoted to sculptures commissioned by reference collectors.
2011 Exhibition at Villa Cernigliano historic mansion in Sordevolo, entitled “Timeless Existence”.
2015 Exhibition at Città Studi in Biella called ‘Finite – Infinite’.
Contacts
