Gianfranco Meggiato was born in Venice in 1963, where he attended the Istituto Statale d’Arte, studying stone, bronze, wood and ceramic sculpture. At the invitation of the Municipality of Venice, he exhibited his works at a very young age (at 16 and 21) at the Galleria Comunale Bevilacqua La Masa in St Mark’s Square in Venice, where he showed sculptures in stone and semi-refractory material.
The work of Meggiato looks to the masters of the 900: Brancusi for its research of the essentiality, Moore for internal-external relationship of it maternity and Calder for the openness of his work in space. The space enters his work and the vacuum becomes important when it is full. His works are inspired by biomorphic tissues, symbol of the rough path of humans who are trying to find themselves which ultimately find the precious sphere in the center of the artwork. Meggiato thus creates the concept of intro-sculpture in which the sight of the observer is attracted towards the interior of the work, without limitations to the external surfaces. “Formally, space and light do not delimitate the work, but penetrate inside wrapping the reticula and knots, reaching and illuminating the central sphere as an ideal point of arrival.”
Since 1998 Gianfranco Meggiato has participated without interruption in a long series of exhibitions, shows and fairs in Italy and abroad. In recent years, he has been invited to take part to the 54th and the 55th Venice Biennale, where he has exhibited among national partecipations. Meggiato has exhibited at Correr Museum in St Mark’s Square in Venice, at National Museum of Musical Instruments in Rome, at Senate Palace in Milan and in Duomo Square in Pietrasanta. In 2012, during Art-Bre exhibition in Cap Martin, he created and presented to Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Sphere Enigma now placed in the Monaco Harbor. In 2014 he exhibited in a solo show at the Center of Contemporary Art in Lucca and in the collective Disquiet Novecento: Vedova, Vasarely, Christo, Cattelan, Hirst and the genesis of the third millennia. The work of Meggiato is present in several exhibitions and fairs in USA, Canada, UK, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Monaco, Ukraine, Russia, India, China, UAE, Kuwait, South Korea, Singapore, Taipei and Australia.
Sfera Erosa, 2014