Valerio Adami

The artist

Born in 1935 in Bologna, Valerio Adami is a leading figure in the Narrative Figuration movement. His acrylic paintings are characterised by blocks of colour outlined in black evoking the themes of travel, music, literature and theatre. The notion of mystery is expressed in the many literary references that populate the paintings, a notion that always plays a central role in his work, which he defines as a philosophical questioning.

Exhibitions

Biography

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BirthBorn in 1935 in Bologna, Italy
ResidenceLives and works between Paris, Monte Carlo and Meina, Italy
Education1955
Académie des Beaux-Arts de Brera, Milan, Italy

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2025Valerio Adama. Laboratorio, Fondazione Marconi, Milano, Italy
2024Pittore d’Idee, curated by Marco Meneuzzo, Palais Royal de Milan, Italy
2022Valerio Adami, TEMPLON, Paris, France
Valerio Adami - Immagine e pensiero, Dep Art Gallery, Milan, Italy
2020Valerio Adami, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
2019Camilla et Valerio Adami, Espace Jacques Villeglé, Saint Gratien, France
The 80s, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2018Adami : lignes de vie, Musée Jean Cocteau, Collection Séverin Wunderman, Menton, France

Voir plus

2017Valerio Adami, Galleria L'Incontro, Chiari, Bs, Italy
Valerio Adami - The Narrative Line, The Mayor Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2016Valerio Adami, Secession, Vienna, Austria
Transfigurations, Chapelle Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Malo, France
De la ligne à la couleur, Le Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France
Valerio Adami, TEMPLON, Brussels, Belgium
Valerio Adami, Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italy
2015Great retrospective Valerio Adami’s 80th birthday, Turin Museum, Turin, Italy ; Mantua Museum, Mantua, Italy
Valerio Adami, Centre d’art contemporain à cent mètres du centre du monde, Perpignan, France
2014Valerio Adami, Disegnare, Dipingere, Galeria André, Roma, Italy
Valerio Adami, Centre d’art graphique de la Métairie Bruyère, Parly, France
2013Mosaïques, Ravenna Museum of Art, Ravenna, Italy
Valerio Adami, Aquarelles, Galerie Biasutti, Turin, Italy
2012Tableaux et dessins, Galerie Hass Ag, Zürich, Switzerland
New Painting – Photographic Work from the Sixties, TEMPLON, Paris, France
Figure nel tempo, Galleria Tega, Milan, Italy
Œuvres graphiques, Nev, Ankara, Turkey
Valerio Adami, les années 1960, Galerie Laurent Strouk, Paris, France
2011Quadri di lettura, Padiglione Italia, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Drawings, Galleria Usher arte, via della Zecca 15, Lucques, Italy
Paintings, Claudio Poleschi Arte Contemporanea, Lucques, Italy
Watercolours, Lucca Center of Contemporary Art, Lucques, Italy
Opere 1971 – 2010, Museo Provinciale di Lecce, Lucques, Italy
Galerie IUFM, 11th contemporary art biennale of Lyon, Lyon, France
2010Pinacoteca Comunale Casa Rusca, Locarno, Italy
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Miami, USA
Dessins, Impasse Beaubourg, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2009Valerio Adami: Postlude, The Mayor Gallery, London, UK
2008Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
2007Jusqu’ici, TEMPLON, Paris, France
2006Valerio Adami, Galleria Biasutti Giampiero, Turin, Italy
Adami d’après Adami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal
2005Valerio Adami, Fondation d’entreprise espace écureuil pour l’art contemporain, Toulouse, France
2004Préludes et après-ludes, TEMPLON, Paris, France
Valerio Adami – Rétrospective, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
2002Marlborough Gallery, New York City, USA
Valerio Adami, Marlborough Monaco, Monaco
Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
2000Valerio Adami – Opere 1990–2000, Galleria dello Scudo, Verona, Italy
1999Pop Art, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Teheran, Iran
La raccolta Spajani, GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
1998Adami, Umberto du marino, Giuliano in Campania, Italy
Museo de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1996Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan, Italy
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
1994Magazzini del Sale, Sienne, Italy
Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy
Valerio Adami, rétrospective, Bochum Museum, Bochum, Germany
1990IVAM, Centro Julio Gonzales, Valencia, Spain
1986Valerio Adami, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
1985Valerio Adami, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1984Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York City, USA
1983Galerie Maeght, Paris, France
Fuji Television Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1979Museo d’Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Retrospective, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1978Dessins, Transgaarden de Hellrup, Copenhagen, Denmark
1976Galerie Maeght, Barcelona, Spain
CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
1975Galerie Maeght, Zürich, Switzerland
1973Valerio Adami – Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
1972Galerie Maeght, Zürich, Switzerland
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, Germany
1970Rétrospective, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Galerie Maeght, Zürich, Switzerland
1966Galleria Schwartz, Milan, Italy
Galleria Marconi, Milan, Italy
Brussels Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
1964Galerie Krugier, Geneva, Switzerland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022Collection Collective ACMCM, à cent mètres du centre du monde, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Perpignan, France
2021No More Boring Art! The Other Side, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium
Dérives, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Narrative Figuration 60s – 70s, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York City, USA
2020Figurez-vous… Adami, Erro, Guyomard, Klassen, Palais des Arts et du Festival, Dinard, France
“Nous sommes faits de l’étoffe de nos rêves et notre petite vie est entourée de sommeil”, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Arte moltiplicata, Gió Marconi Gallery, Milan, Italy

Voir plus

2019Un monde, un seul, pour demeure, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France
Histoire de l’art cherche personnages…, CAPC - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
Demons in Line, Team Gallery, New York City, USA
The Pictionary individual, Harkawik, Los Angeles, USA
2018Io sono una poesia. Parole sui muri e le arti negli anni Sessanta tra Modena e Reggio Emilia, Musei Civici di Modena, Modena, Italy
Testimonianze - Composizioni Materiche E Oggettuali Dagli Anni ’60 Ad Oggi, Galleria d'Arte 2000 & Novecento, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Pictures without Shadows - A selection from the Kemp Collection, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
201740th anniversary. Twentieth Century Art Collection. 1977-2017, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Alicante (MACA), Alicante, Spain
HOP!, Musée d'Ixelles, Bruxelles, Belgium
Exposition de l’été, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Giugno Italiano, nm>contemporary, Monaco, Monaco
Landscapes. Declinazioni in giallo e in verde, Galleria d'Arte 2000 & Novecento, Reggio Emilia, Italy
Nummeriert Und Handsigniert - Ausgewaehlte Graphik Und Skulptur, Die Galerie – Frankfurt, Germany
Georges Pompidou, Une aventure du regard et de l’art, Domaine national de Chambord, France
La Nouvelle Figuration Européenne : 1964 - 1976, Galerie du Griffon, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Mondalité, Fondation Boghossian-Villa Empain, Bruxelles, Belgium
2016ROSSO, Anna Maria Consadori, Milan, Italy
Sternstunde - 100 Zeichnungen, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
Italia Pop. L’Arte Negli Anni Del Boom, Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Parme, Italy
Minimenta 2016, Galerie Popy Arvani, Paris, France
Perdidos en la ciudad/ La vida urbana en las colecciones del IVAM, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain
Italian Pop, Tornabuoni Art London, London, UK
Adami, Del Pezzo, Schifano, Tadini (50 anni dopo…), Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italy
Juste pour le plaisir (A&B), Centre d’art contemporain à cent mètres du centre du monde, Perpignan, France
2015The Silo, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York City, NY, USA
Cart(E), Galleria Cart, Monza, Italy
1965-2015. 50 anni dallo Studio Marconi alla Fondazione Marconi, Fondazione Marconi, Milan, Italiy
Arte contemporáneo en la colección Himalaya, Museo de Albacete, Albacete, Spain
Figuration Narrative : Paris 1960-1975, Art Collection S.à r.l, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
INTIMATE SPHERES, MA Galerie, Paris, France
2014Figuration narrative, Adami, Erro, Klasen, Monory, Morteyrol, Velickovic, Atelier Gabrielle, Salernes, France
Estampes et œuvres sur papier, Galerie Atelier 28, Lyon, France
2013Collection LGR, MAMAC, Nice, France
Foire Européenne d’Art Contemporain, Parc des expositions, Strasbourg, France
2010Arte Svelata, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy
2009Riccardo Licata e gli amici di Venezia e Parigi, Palazzo della Promotrice delle Belle Arti, Turin, Italy
Pop, Polit und Pin ups. Pop Art Grafik aus der Sammlung Beck, Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen, Bietigheim- Bissingen, Germany
Fixsterne: 100 Jahre Kunst auf Papier, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany
Hot Spots, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ; Milan, Turin, Italy ; Los Angeles, USA ; Zürich, Switzerland
Passion d’art, Collection privées Musée Éphémère, Montélimar, France
Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968–2008, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, Chicago, USA
2008La Figuration narrative, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Signe écriture signe, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Liège, Belgium
Time & Place, Milano–Torino 1958–1968, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Camilla et Valério Adami, Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon’s house, Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines, France
2007Arte italiana 1968–2007 Pittura, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
2006Selecció del fons de la galeria, Art Vall, Andorra la Vella, Andora
Italian Pop, Mayor Gallery, London, UK
Artists and Their Models, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, China
Arbeiten auf Papier, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin, Germany
Marlborough Monaco, Monaco
2005Anthropography III, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
Obras Maestras del Siglo XX en las Colecciones del IVAM, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
Hommage à Matisse, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium
Bologna contemporanea, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
Eye of the Storm: The IMMA Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Pop Art Italia, Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena, Italy
2004Suggestioni astratte e figurative, Galleria d’Arte 2000 & Novecento, Reggio nell’Emilia, Italy
Walter Benjamin und die Kunst der Gegenwart / Schrift – Bilder – Denken, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany
Christmas Art Gifts, Artiscope, Brussels, Belgium
Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
2003Anthropogeography – The Human Figure at the Beginning of the 21st Century, Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece
Marlborough Monaco, Monaco
2000Une ville – une collection, Centre de la gravure et de l’image imprimée, La Louvière, France
1996Festival de Spoleto, Perugia, Italy
Acquisitions récentes du Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Casino Luxembourg, Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
199546th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1989Une histoire de collection : dons 1984–1989, Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada
1988Gran Pavese, The Flag Project, M HKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
1987Hommage à Ferrari, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
198513th Paris Biennale, Paris, France
1978Le Disque, médium artistique : du futurisme à l’art conceptuel, Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada
From Nature to Art, from Art to Nature, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1977Documenta IV, Kassel, Germany
1968Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
1964Documenta III, Kassel, Germany
I Massacri privati, Galleria Schwartz, Milan, Italy
1961Italian Artists, Cambridge Art Association, Boston, USA
1960Young Italian Painters, Kamakura Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Japan

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)

Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, Germany
Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Musée des beaux-arts, Bruxelles, Belgium
Musée d’art moderne, Liège, Belgium
Museum van Heedendaagse Kunst, Gand, Belgium
IVAM – Museo de Arte Moderno, Valence, Spain
Fondaccion Miro, Barcelone, Spain

Voir plus

Museum of Modern Art, Minneapolis, US
Museum of Modern Art, Pittsburg, US
Mc. Crory Corporation, New York City, US
Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova Museum, Turku, Finland
Maija and Urpo Lahtinen Foundation, Villa Urpo, Tampere, Finland
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Fonds national d’art contemporain, Paris, France
Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
Musée d’art moderne de Grenoble, Grenoble, France
Musée d’art moderne, Saint-Étienne, France
Musée Cantini d’art moderne de Marseille, Marseille, France
Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Musée Picasso, Antibes, France
Musée de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Frissiras Museum, Athènes, Greece
Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israël
Museo d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
Museo d’Arte Moderna Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bergamo, Italy
Rotterdam Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Musée Bernardo, Lisbon, Portugal
Museo de Arte Moderno, Caracas, Venezuela
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy

Press

Il Giornale Dell'Arte - juillet 2022

Alla Galleria Templon, Valerio Adami

Les Inrockuptibles - mai 2022

Valerio Adami

Artforum.com - octobre 2019

Valerio Adami

Ingrid Luquet-Gad

Le journal des arts - octobre 2019

Adami en lac Majeure

Henry-François Debailleux

La Gazette Drouot - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami : les années '80

Alain Quemin

L'Oeil - septembre 2019

Valerio Adami

V. DE

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News

Valerio Adami
VALERIO ADAMI. LABORATORIO

Solo Show

Fondazione Marconi, Milan
March 2025 to May 2025

The Fondazione Marconi is dedicating a solo show to Valerio Adami in Milan through May 2025. A presentation of the extended reprint of the book Valerio Adami – Sinopie Luoghi Confessioni will take place on Saturday May 24, 2025 at 4pm, accompanied by a dialogue between Valeria Cantoni Mamiani, President of the Valerio Adami Archives, and philosopher Maurizio Ferraris, followed by a reading by actress Anna Nogara.

Valerio Adami
PITTORE D’IDEE – MILAN

Solo Show

Palazzo Reale, Milan
From July 17 to September 22, 2024

Palazzo Reale presents Pittore d’Idee, Valerio Adami’s solo show curated by Marco Meneguzzo, that celebrates sixty-five years of research. Behind straightforward images is hidden a more complex narrative: the Adami’s artworks are rich in sophisticated visual metaphors, and they include philosophical, literary and mythological concepts, representing the evolution of ideas through the European and Western thought.

Valerio Adami
Philippe Cognée
Gérard Garouste
Pierre et Gilles
« MOI JE » – GROUP SHOW

Biennale de l’UNAM (Union Méditerranéenne pour l’Art Moderne)
Château-Musée Grimaldi, Haut-de-Cagnes – Place du Château, Cagnes-sur-Mer
From June 12, 2021 to January 3, 2022

The UNAM Biennale gathers around forty artists who illustrate with originality and talent their vision of “Moi, Je” and its present and future challenges in the mutations of an obviously dangerous society and withdrawal into oneself.

Valerio Adami
FIGUREZ-VOUS… ADAMI, ERRO, GUYOMARD, KLASEN – GROUP SHOW

From December 12, 2020 to March 7, 2021,Palais des Arts et du Festival, 2 Boulevard Wilson, 35800 Dinard, France

The exhibition is dedicated to the artistic movement  of Narrative Figuration. It brings together four masters of contemporary art, Adami, Erró, Guyomard and Klasen, whose works are preserved in hundreds of museums around the world and by great collectors.

Valerio Adami
CAMILLA & VALERIO ADAMI – GROUP SHOW

ESPACE JACQUES VILLEGLE, SAINT GRATIEN, FRANCEFrom 03/10/2019 to 07/12/2019

Valerio Adami
ITALIAN WEEK “LA BELLEZZA” – SOLO SHOW

ARRONDISSEMENT TOWN HALL, PARIS, FRANCE From 24/06/2019 to 2/07/2019

Valerio Adami
ADAMI : LIGNES DE VIE – SOLO SHOW

MUSEE JEAN COCTEAU, MENTON, FRANCE From 02/06/2018 to 05/11/2018 

Museum Jean Cocteau in Menton presents a major exhibition of Valerio Adami, gathering  a body of paintings, drawings and photographs from the late 1960s until today. Born in Bologna in 1935, Adami is a painter, a drawer and a printmaker. After his first solo exhibition in Milano (1957) when he was still very largely influenced by Roberto Matta’s surrealism, the artist soon followed the  path of European New Figuration and Narrative Figuration Oscillating in between line and colour as well as in between drawing and painting, Valerio Adami’s work  can be perceived as a kind of writing in itself,  an exploration through mythology, poetry and the intimacy of an artist. The museum Jean Cocteau / collection Séverin Wunderman, proposes a journey through the artist’s half a century creation.

Valerio Adami
GEORGES POMPIDOU, UNE AVENTURE DU REGARD ET DE L’ART – GROUP SHOW

DOMAINE NATIONAL DE CHAMBORD, FRANCEFrom 6/18/2017 to 11/19/2017

In 2017, Chambord collaborates with the Centre Pompidou, as part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the institution with an exhibition dedicated to Georges Pompidou, the former French president and creator of the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition will bring together more than 90 artworks – rarely displayed – by 67 artists, including Adami, Arman, César.

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Videos

Valerio Adami

Valerio Adami

Valerio Adami

Les années 80

Valerio Adami

Recent Works

Valerio Adami

Photographic Work from the Sixties

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