ALESSIO
DELI
Alessio Deli
Alessio Deli was born in Marino near Rome in 1981. After studying at the Art Institute of Marino, he went on to graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara where he specialized in sculpture.
Deli has made a name for himself in the Italian art world with a series of sculptures created from recycled materials scavenged from dump sites. Although the style of these works is rooted in the classical past, the desire to breathe new life into defunct and cast-off materials gives them a relevant, postmodern twist. Deli's latest sculptures, in particular the Korai, return to classical influences, exploring memory and historical identity in connection with Italian sculptural traditions. These works were presented to the public at Deli’s solo exhibition at the Palazzo Valentini museum space in central Rome in 2019.
Sculptures by Deli are to be found in many prestigious permanent collections including the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome; the MacS (Sicily's Museum of Contemporary Art), Catania; the Civic Collection of Contemporary Art at Palazzo Simoni Fè, Bienno; the Roberto Bilotti Ruggi d'Aragona Museum in Rende, Cosenza; the National Gallery of Calabria, Cosenza; the Vatican Archives; the Municipal Palazzo of San Quirico d'Orcia, Siena; the Antico Collegio Martino Filetico, Ferentino; the "La Sapienza" University of Rome; the New Church of St. Peter the Apostle, Cosenza; the S. Bonaventura Cloister in Rome and the Porporati Park in Turin.
Alessio Deli’s solo exhibition KORAI, Incipit Memoria at the museum space
Palazzo Valentini was curated by RvB Arts and supported by Rome city council.
In his most recent works, the Korai, Deli creates a dynamic relationship between the contemporary and a return to classical - if not archaic - statuary. It’s a journey back in time, which starts from the present and has its roots in the archetypes of tradition, stretching from the Italian post-war artists, such as Arturo Martini and Marino Marini, to exponents of the Renaissance such as Luca della Robbia. In this process, Deli also retrieves other artforms, often considered minor, like devotional art, where the artist's manual ability plays a fundamental role… A clear cultural identity strongly emerges, centered on the continuity and permanence of memory, which literally shapes the contemporary figure, together with the corrosive action of time.
LUISA GRIGOLETTO
Italian sculptor Alessio Deli shows viewers his latest completed work: Anthropocene, created in marble and conceived in the summer of 2019, long before the current global health emergency.
I wanted to create a sculptural installation composed of agave plants, cacti and Bird of Paradise flowers, partly inspired by reading Italo Calvino’s The Thousand Gardens and his attention to the increasingly precarious relationship between man and nature... The plants are created using only recycled material and metals.
ALESSIO DELI