/ Daniele Galliano

Daniele Galliano (1961) is a famous self-taught Italian artist living and working in Turin. He began exhibiting in Turin in the early 1990s and quickly gained a reputation in the new Italian painting scene. He is renowned for his version of “photographic realism”, and his works have been included in personal and collective exhibitions in Europe and the USA. He was invited to several prestigious biennials around the world: the 9th Havana Biennale (2006), the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) and the 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala (2016). Among many solo shows, the most outstanding were at the Gallery Annina Nosei in New York (1996, 1997), at the Galleria In Arco in Turin (1992, 1994) and at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome (1996). Galliano belongs to the triad of famous local artists that includes Pierluigi Pusole (1963) and Bartolomeo Migliore (1963), both of whom also came to prominence in the 1990s. The group often exhibits together, like the recent show at the Davide Paludetto (Arte Contemporanea, Turin • 2020). Among a long list of collective shows, Galliano also participated in two shows curated by the American-Italian artist Victor Kastelic (1964) at his gallery Kspaces in Turin: The Greatest Things/Le cose migliori (2018) and Foreshadows/Prefigurazioni (2019). Galliano also collaborates with musicians, directors and writers and is associated with the Studio dell'Arte Raffaelli in Trento. His work is included in some of the major public and private collections of contemporary art, such as the Galleria Civica d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, the MART of Trento and Rovereto and the Unicredit Art Collection in Milan.

Daniele Galliano works in various media: painting, drawing, photography and video.

The works of Daniele Galliano are “Untitled”, as if words have no place in describing his artwork. In fact, Daniele’s works are clearly visual stories. Scenes of everyday life in a somewhat down-trodden society. Streets, cars, downtown sunsets, bar rooms, dance halls, rave parties, and cardinal congregations. People gather and then break up. Solitary figures undressing. A dog. A cow. A mountain pasture. Up to this point, all is well, clear and understood. Then the act of painting begins. Galliano’s brushwork brings mystery and an uneasy sense of “something’s aloof”. The viewer’s eye slowly catches the “wrongness” and sees the swoop of flat paint. The interplay between hard and soft edges. Colours that blend from pure and bright to dark and muddled. The everyday subject constitutes the playground for the act of painting. Which factor is more important? We accept distortions and flatness in photography but do not question its integrity. With painting, especially in Galliano’s case, sometimes a vital detail is lost (e.g. a figure’s head) in the name of a successful colour transition. A magic, wizardly sense of reality comes to the surface, and suddenly we realize that Daniele’s art is not “pretty as a picture”, but we are not disappointed.
– Kspaces Archive, Turin (2022)