Lorenzo Montinaro
Lorenzo Montinaro was born in Taranto in 1997. He lives and works between Milan and Taranto. He graduated in Art Education and Communication from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and earned a degree in Visual Arts from IUAV University in Venice. From January to December 2022, he was an artist in residence at the Viafarini studios in Milan.
Lorenzo Montinaro’s practice explores memory, time, and material transformation through sculpture and installation. Working with elements such as marble, iron, ash, burnt wood, and fragments of reclaimed gravestones, he creates works that investigate what remains after erosion, disappearance, and silence. Rather than treating these materials symbolically, Montinaro activates them through subtraction, abrasion, and concealment, allowing traces of time and absence to emerge directly through matter itself.
Language and monumentality occupy a central role in his research, though often in fragmented or unstable forms. Names disappear, surfaces are wounded, and objects become suspended between remembrance and oblivion. His works function as quiet contemporary reliquaries — spaces that invite slowness, attention, and physical presence rather than immediate interpretation.
Rooted in funerary traditions and collective memory, Montinaro’s installations resist spectacle and nostalgia. Instead, they propose an intimate reflection on fragility, persistence, and the vulnerable relationship between material, history, and human presence.
Selected Exhibitions
2021 – What the Fuck Is Prosperity, A plus A, Venice (curated by Curatorial School)
2022 – Visioni (S)velate, Viafarini, Milan (curated by Elena Bray)
2022 – E ci fa dispetto il tempo, Sottofondo Studio, Arezzo (curated by Elena Castiglia)
2022 – Monumento, Bolzano Art Weeks (curated by Nina Stricker)
2022 – REA Art Fair, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan
2022 – Ma tu rimani, Casavuota, Rome (curated by Sabino De Nichilo and Francesco Paolo Del Re)
2023 – L’erba sulla polvere, MA Project, Perugia (curated by Davide Silvioli)
2023 – Non rimane che volare, Osservatorio Futura, Turin
2023 – Edicola Radetzky, personal project, Milan (curated by Arnold Braho)
2024 – Quasi Niente, Contemporary Cluster, Rome (curated by Lorenzo Madaro)
2024 – Dopo la fine, Galleria Ramo, Como
2024 – Sacro è, Fondazione Mario Merz, Turin (curated by Giulia Turconi)
2024 – Address Unknown, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (curated by Viafarini)
2024 – Fatmah, Contemporary Cluster, Rome (curated by Arnold Braho)
2025 – Bee in a Bonnet, Montoro 12 Gallery, Brussels
2025 – Spirito Sangue, Basilica Cathedral of San Cataldo, Taranto (curated by Maria Abramenko)
2026 – Where Do We End, Bobbina CS, Sofia
Public Commissions and Awards
2023 – Commissioned by the Municipality of Milan to realize a permanent monument dedicated to the 1938 census of Jews in Italy, installed at the Cittadella degli Archivi, Milan.
2023 – Selected by Exibart among the 222 emerging artists to invest in.
