BIO:
Saul first exhibited in 2005 in a small gallery in Milan.
His rise to international success has been astonishing; he now has works in permanent collections in New York, London, Paris, Milan, Basel, Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Saul was born in Mendrisio in Switzerland in 1977.
Although his passion for painting and sculpture was evident from a very young age, he decided to study philosophy.
It is easy to see the influence of a philosophical brain in his work.
Saul works in an analytical way; a complex layering of interpretation flows from each of Saul’s portraits giving us a new version of his subject.
His subjects are: friends, stars, famous drag queens, icons of a fantastic world and select international commissions.
Like an aesthetic surgeon, Saul morphs, squeezes and twists forms; he changes human bodies into artificial lifeforms which are trapped in a Zanolari world.
Like a contemporary Dorian Gray, his subjects harbour dark and secret souls and, with a good measure of irony, they become: icons of universal themes – beauty, motherhood, problems of adolescence -, and some highlight issues like artificial insemination, solitude and depression.
Saul creates a new artistic amalgam – not photography, not digital imagery, not painting, but a complex fusion of all three.
The outcome is an ex novo portrait: an innovative artistic work.
The world of Saul Zanolari is silent and dark, his subjects trapped in time, motionless with a twisted glint in their eyes.
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SOLO SHOW:
2011
March 26th-May 22nd
S.O.S. / …—… Una Mano che Conta
Iron and Ceramic installation, Piazza Manzoni – Lugano (CH)
2008
September 1st–December 31st
Safotofestival
San Antonio – Texas (USA)
May 5th–31st
Saul’ Soul
Heist Gallery – New York City (USA)
March 1st–31st
Post Human
F2 Gallery – Beijing (PRC)
2007
April 26th–June 2nd
Quello che non so dire
Luciano Inga-Pin – Milan (I)
December
Nettie Horn Gallery
London (UK)
2006
May 29th–June 12th
Dolls, Drags and Djs
Brick Lane Gallery – London (UK)
September 16th–October 7th
New New Portraits
Galerie Mamia Bretesche – Paris (F)
GROUP SHOW:
2011
June 9th-September 10th
A Portrait Apart
Porter Contemporary Gallery – New York City (USA)
2009
December 4th-20th
Mutate Britain – One Foot in the Grove
Under the Westway. 3-6 Acklam Rd. – London (UK)
April 4th-June 7th
Baby, Like that
Salon Artistique SexPot - Amsterdam (NL)
2008
October 10th 25th
Emergenze Creative
MAR Museo d’Arte della citta’ di Ravenna – Ravenna (I)
2007
July 5th–August 12th
Beauhemia
Nettie Horn Gallery – London (UK)
May – June
Galerie Mamia Bretesche – Paris (F)
2006
February 21st–26th
The Adi Projects Space – London (UK)
May 5th
Act Art 4
King’s Cross Station – London (UK)
September 1st–December 31st
Safotofestival
San Antonio – Texas (USA)
September 25th–October 15th
Art Below Projects, Art in the Tube of London – London (UK)
October 10th– 29th
Brick Lane Gallery – London (UK)
2005
March 17th–May 31st
Lo sguardo altrove / The look beyond
Luciano Inga-Pin – Milan (I)
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EXTERNAL LINKS:
Porter Contemporary Gallery (NYC)
F2 Gallery (Beijing)
C-Collection (Liechtenstein)
Eyepillow Art Editions (Switzerland)
