About
BIOGRAPHY
Paolo Gheri was born in Florence in 1940. He currently lives in the countryside near Siena. He attended the University of Florence and graduated with a degree in pedagogy. Since then he has worked as a teacher and headmaster with a special interest in art and art history.
He started drawing and painting from an early age; in 1962 he attended life drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and from 1962 to 1964 he also trained privately under the artist and art tutor Carlo Capezzuoli in Poggibonsi near Siena, though Gheri is essentially self-taught. He has worked with many different mediums and techniques: pencil and ink, acrylic, oil, tempera and, in particular, watercolour.
He writes reviews for art and cultural magazines, and he has also published a number of books and essays on art and education.
His work is held in private collections in Italy and abroad.
PUBLISHED ON
His artwork has been published in numerous magazines. Among the most recent ones:
Artisti e poeti contemporanei, Perugia, 2003
Avanguardie artistiche 2005, Palermo, 2005
Centovoci, Città di Castello, 2005
Euroarte, n.3, Lecce, 2006
Art’in progress, Taormina, 2008
Internet Art Fair, Galleria Alba, Ferrara, 2010
Art Pages 2010, Annuario Arte Italiana, “Magna Graecia”, 2010
International Contemporary Artists, ICA Publishing, NY, 2011
Incisioni originali italiane e straniere dell’800 e moderne. Acquerelli e disegni, Catalogo n.250 (2014-2015), Libreria Antiquaria Prandi, Reggio Emilia, 2014
Artisti Contemporanei in Terra di Siena, a cura di F. Borghini, Signa, Il Masso delle Fate Edizioni, 2015
STATEMENT
The works presented in this website are painted from life; they are based on real subjects which are, for me, a necessary starting point in order to study the shape, the light, and the mysterious relationships which seem to exist between different objects when they are put together. In my work I always tend to reduce and simplify the visible shapes of things and to free them, as much as possible, from the exterior ornaments which prevent a clear perception of the essential features. I sometimes try to eliminate, in successive stages, more and more detail so as to reduce the shape of objects to the limit of their recognizability.
Paolo Gheri
