







LUCA ROSSI (2009-2025)
‘Luca Rossi’ has been called the most interesting artistic personality in Italy by Fabio Cavallucci. Since 2009, ‘Luca Rossi’, an open collective, blogger, critic, curator, artist and controversial figure in the art system, has been trying to stimulate more critical discussion on a daily basis in the field of contemporary art, as a subject that could play a fundamental role in our present. From his own critical reflections, widely disseminated through magazines such as Flash Art, Exibart, Artribune and via social networks (more than 200,000 accounts reached per month), an unconventional artistic project has descended, dissemination and training projects with the creation in 2016 of the ‘Luca Rossi Art Academy & Coaching’ (www.documenta.live). Today, Luca Rossi regularly writes for “Finestre sull’Arte”, the second most read art magazine in Italy with 2 million views per month, and “Spaghetti Boost”, a new art and current affairs magazine that uses innovative communication methods.
In 2014, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio interviewed in Artribune, referred to Luca Rossi as the future promise of contemporary art, comparing him to what ‘Vanessa Beecroft’ might have been in the 1990s. Some ‘critical nodes’ developed over the years by Luca Rossi (‘Ikea Evoluta’, ‘Young Indiana Jones Syndrome’ and ‘Grandparents Parents Foundation’, etc.) have entered the language of Italian art and have changed the perspective and vision of many people in the sector and beyond. In 2014, the famous art critic Angela Vettese stated that since reading Luca Rossi’s texts, she has decided to no longer dedicate herself to the practice of art but only to theory.
Official and unofficial solo and group exhibitions:
Tirana Biennale (2001); Mart, Rovereto (2009); Whitney Biennial, New York (2010); Venice Biennale (2013, 2015, 2019, 2022); Sénanque Abbey (2013); Gamec, Bergamo (2014); Boros Collection, Berlin (2015); Serpentine Gallery, London (2015); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016); Hotel Helvetia, Porretta Terme (2016); Quirinale, Rome (2017); SMACH 2017, Val Badia (2017); New Museum, New York, (2017, 2021); Tate Modern, London (2017, 2021); National Gallery of Scotland (2018); Centrale Fies/ Manifesta 12, 7800 Project (2018); Fondazione Sandretto Re Re Rebaudengo, #OccupySandretto (2018); ICA Milan (2019); Gagosian Gallery Rome (2019); Venezuelan Pavilion (2019); Prada Foundation Venice (2019); My Arbor My Art, MyArbor (2019); Palazzo Strozzi (2021,2022); Hangar Bicocca (2021); Bourse de Commerce (2021); Pompidou Museum (2022); MoMA Museum (2022); Documenta 15 (2022); Lisson Gallery (2022), BienNolo (Milan 2023); Bourse de Commerce (Paris, 2013); Galleria SIX (2023); Padiglione Itaglia (Magazzeno Art Gaze, Bologna, 2024); Un Cretin a Berlin (Campanini Contemporary, Berlin 2024); HOME Pavilion (for Venice Biennale 2024); Traveling Gallery Project (CuratedBy, ArtVerona 2023,2024); Musée de l’OHM, Bologna 2025; Booming Contemporary, Bologna 2025; SMACH 2025 International Biennale on the Dolomites, 2025.
CRITICISM, THE FIGHT, THE FUTURE: LUCA ROSSI
In the Italian contemporary art scene there is a figure of considerable interest. Luca Rossi–artist/ collective, critic, curator, and blogger–is a controversial personality who works in anonymity, as some kind of Anonymous of the Art System. In Luca Rossi’s philosophy, the ego no longer exists because anyone can be Luca Rossi, at the same time that the “critical process”, the virtual space of the Internet, and the real context no longer have boundaries and blend into one.
“Luca Rossi” was born in 2009 from the severe critical context that he himself triggered. “Evolved Ikea”, “Young Indiana Jones Syndrome”, “Smart-relativism”, “Grandparents and Parents Foundation”, are just some of the keywords around which Luca Rossi has been developing a daily critical work. Critical concepts that affect an entire generation of artists forced to confront a century as dense as the twentieth century. This critical work has allowed him to anticipate a fusion and confusion of roles that we can now see very well in a role that we could define as “spectauthor”. Luca Rossi’s unconventional projects arise from a manipulation of information that is treated exactly as if it were clay to be moulded, long before the concept of “fake news” became so important in the public debate. The nature of his works experiences a fibrillation between imagination, conventional object, direct experience and mediated experience.
Today individuals experience a sort of “non-experience” in the sense that they spend most of their time surfing the “network”, producing a “new memory-without memory” or a “passive and a-critical assimilation” into the system. Luca Rossi knows this well. He constantly reminds us of the history of art and ideas, of our past, of what it means to be critical and active, struggling to preserve one’s own authenticity and originality in the great McDonald that is our contemporary world.
Many curators and artists, both in Italy and Europe, have been following Luca’s work with great excitement. By now Luca is considered the only critical voice that “stands out” in the current Italian landscape.
It is worrisome that Luca’s work has yet to be recognized by institutions and organizations, despite receiving the acknowledgement of the public and many curators and artists. This says a lot about what the value that the Italian system places on the “real artist”. The Italian contemporary landscape has been dragging itself down for more than 10 years, producing artists who “copy and paste”, endless repetitions of projects signed by the same names, and decreeing the end of contemporary art.