Luigi Ontani

Since the early 1970s, Luigi Ontani (born 1943) has been building a corpus of works exploring ideas of the sacred and the profane, Occidental and Oriental, kitsch and high art. This volume provides an overview of his diverse activities, including his photographic portraits in which he impersonates Leonardo, Dante, Pinocchio or San Sebastian, ceramic and papier-mâché sculptures, paintings and video works.

Reviewing Luigi Ontani's recent New York retrospective at P.S. 1 for Artforum, Brooks Adams wrote, "Luigi Ontani is that rare bird of art: an unforgettable face, a world-class dandy and a redoubtable if lovably eccentric presence on the international art-world circuit… Ontani's work makes his own self-portrait-as-androgyne central to the myth of all creation: This is narcissism transformed into a powerful-and redemptive-force of nature, a kind of male fecundity." Marbleharmony documents new sculptural works that Ontani produced for his 2007 exhibition at the historically important Gallery Gian Ferrari in Milan. Its title borrows from one of the key pieces in the show, a marble sculptural portrait of artist sitting on a book, with another in his hand, and a rainbow surrounding him from behind. Ontani was born in Vergato, Italy, in 1943. He has been considered one of Italy's most important artists since the 1970s. His work was most recently shown at Bortolami Gallery, New York.