Igor Gustini

IGOR GUSTINI

Born in Florence on 1969, he obtains the General Certificate of Education at the State College of Arts in Padua in 1987, and graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice (Course of Painting) in 1993. The artist lives and works in Via Chioare n°13, 36100 – Vicenza (Italy)
Tel.& Fax: 0039-(0)444-544920 – Cell.-phone: 0039-3477417804 E-mail :
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He appeared in various international newspapers, TV channels, Radio stations, and he held seminars in the Academy of Fine Arts of Zagreb (Croatia) and in the State University of Pula (Croatia).
First Prize Award of Vicenza Town Council in 1991/1992 for the poster “Vicenza Town”. - First Prize Award “Emerging Artists of Veneto Region” of “Cittadella Town” (Padua) under the patronage of the Town Council in 1997.

Member of the Artist Union of Croatia (HDLU).

Personal exhibitions:

 2008 “Kula”/ Tower Gallery, Split (Croatia)
 2007 “Variants”, Bernardo Bernardi Gallery, Zagreb (Croatia)
 2007 “Mix-Media”, Town Gallery Fonticus, Grožnjan/Grisignana (Croatia)
 2006 “Fractals of the soul-fragments and shadows”, Gallery “MMC Luka”,Pula (Croatia)
“Na vrhu vala” , Atelier Lučko Gallery, Zagreb (Croatia)
 2005 “Differentiations 2005”, Boris Smoje Gallery, Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
 2003 Town Museum Karlovac, Karlovac (Croatia)
 Gallery “Vernissage”, Osijek (Croatia)
 2001 Gallery “Vernissage”, Osijek (Croatia)
 2000 “Dom Hrvatskih Branitelja” Gallery, Pula (Croatia)
 “Spomendom” Gallery, Pazin (Croatia)
 1999 Exhibition Gallery of the Croatian Consulate General, Trieste (Italy)
 1998 “Gio Art”, Center “Palladio”, Vicenza (Italy)
 Gallery “Zvonimir”, Solin (Croatia)
 1997 Exhibition under the patronage of the Town Council, Pozzoleone (Italy)
 Exhibition under the patronage of the Friends of Art Association, Nove (Italy)
 International Fair, Padua (Italy)
 1996 Gallery of St. Francis’ Monastery, Kuna (Croatia)
 “Studio Elle” Gallery, Vicenza (Italy)
 1995 “Palazzo dei Canonici”, Barbarano Vicentino (Italy)


Collective exhibitions:

 2008 “LKG 08”, Town Gallery “Fonticus”, International art workshop, Grisignana/Grožnjan, (Croatia)
 Old Town Palace, Split (Croatia)
 2007 Annual exhibitoion, Multimedial Center “MMC Luka”, HDLU Istre foundation, Pula (Croatia)
 “Profilo d’Arte 2007” - Museo della Permanente / Milan; Palazzo Poncarali/ Brescia; Gallery
 S.Federico/Turin; Palazzo Nagliati/Ferrara; Palazzo Sacrati/Reggio Emilia; Banca Profilo/Rome
 “Eleven Seven / Artists for Srebrenica”, Ricetto di Candelo, Biella (Italy)
 “Auswärtiges Amt”, Berlin (Germany)
 “Dokumenti”, Gallery “MMC Luka”, Pula (Croatia)
 “50x50” – KONS, Gallery “Negrisin”, Muggia (Italy)
 “34 ZILIK”- International Art Workshop , Galley “ZILIK” Karlovac (Croazia)
 2006 “40 Artistists and 40 Works”, En Sof Gallery, Bologna (Italy)
 HDLU-Istre Foundation, Multimedial Center, Gallery “MMC Luka”, Pula (Croatia)
 National Gallery of Foreign Arts, Sofia (Bulgaria)
 Art Gallery, Ruse (Bulgaria)
 Palais Porcia, Vienna (Austria)
 2006 Town Historical Museum, Gdansk (Poland)
 “Auditorium Maximum Jagiellonskiego University”, Krakow (Poland)
 HDLU House, “Exhibition of recent works”, Prsten Gallery, Zagreb (Croatia)
 “Print to art”, Multimedial Center ,Gallery “MMC” Luka, Pula (Croatia)
 2005 HDLU-Istre, Multimedial Center, Gallery “MMC” Luka, Pula (Croatia)
 HDLU House, “Exhibition of recent works”, Prsten Gallery, Zagreb (Croatia)
 “Kons”, Slovene Cultural Circle, Longera/Lonjer (Italy)
 University of Pretoria, The Edoardo Villa Museum, Pretoria (South Africa)
 “Gordart Gallery”, Melville-Johannesburg (South Africa)
 Gallery “Horizon 1”, Cairo (Egypt)
 Alexandrian Library, Alexandria (Egypt)
 “Transart”: - Town Museum Trogir, Trogir; Gallery “Galiotović”, Sinj; Gallery “Antun Gojak”,
 Makarska; Gallery “Likovni salon”, Opuzen; Gallery “Tinova kula”, Vrgorac;
 Chuch of Holy Cross, Vodice; City Hall Gallery, Blato; Town Museum Kaštela, Kaštela; Gallery
 “Zvonimir”, Solin (Croatia)
 Gallery “ZILIK”, International Art workshop, Karlovac (Croatia)
 2004 Gallery “Hrvatski dom”, Mostar (Bosnia & Erzegovina)
 Gallery “Gabrijel”, Sarajevo (Bosnia & Erzegovina)
 “Differences” - DLUSP, International Art workshop, City Hall Gallery, Nova Gorica (Slovenia)
 2003 Exhibition of Fonticus Gallery art Foundation, Town Gallery Fonticus, Grisignana/Grožnjan (Cro)
 Multimedial Center, “MMC Luka” Gallery, Pula (Croatia)
 Gallery “ZILIK”, International Art workshop, Karlovac (Croatia)
 Multimedial Center, “MMC Luka” Gallery, Pula (Croatia)
 Gallery “GMB”, Vicenza (Italy)
 Gallery “Artium”, Lonigo (Italy)
 ”Arteden”, International Art workshop, Slovene Cultural Circle, Longera/Lonjer -Triest (Italy)
 Gallery “Vernissage”, Osijek (Croatia)
 International Art Symposium “Medulin 2003”, Medulin (Croatia)
 Roman Arena of Pula, Gallery “Amfiteatar”, Pula (Croatia)
 2002 “Pontart” Association, Ponte nelle Alpi (Italy)
 “Corporeo”, Gallery “Studio Vajenti”, Vicenza (Italy)
 Gallery “Vernissage”, Osijek (Croatia)
 International Art Symposium “Medulin 2002”, Medulin (Croatia)
 Gallery “Laurus”, Lovran (Croatia)
 Gallery “MMC Luka”, Pula (Croatia)
 2001 International Art Symposium “Medulin 2001”, Medulin (Croatia)
 “Free Popular University”, Ogulin (Croatia)
 “Art factory”, Gallery “V&V Projects”, Vicenza (Italy)
 2000 Gallery “36”, Kiew (Ukraina)
 International Art Symposium “Medulin 2000”, Medulin (Croatia)
 “Croatian Millenium Art Exhibition”, Hamilton and Mississagua (Canada)
 1998 “Pregnantly”, Stock Exchange Hall, Basilica of Palladio, Vicenza
 Students Association SGMS Gallery, Vicenza
 Biennial Art Exhibition of Young Artists, Turin (Italy)
 1997 “A.P.T.” Gallery, Bassano del Grappa (Italy)
 under the patronage of the Town Council, Cittadella (Italy)
 1996 Hotel Sheraton, Zagreb (Croatia)
 1995 Bürgerländisch Zentrum Gallery, Vienna (Austria)
 1994 “Choises and colour”, Town Council Gallery, Gorizia (Italy)
 1993 Academy of Fine Arts, Venice (Italy)

- Croatian Consulate General- Trieste (Italy);
- “Dom Hrvatskih Branitelja” – Pula (Croatia);
- “Arenaturist” – Medulin (Croatia);
- Permanent Art Collection, Town of Pula (Croatia);
- Permanent Art Collection Gallery, “ZILIK” Foundation – Karlovac (Croatia);
- Slovene Cultural Circle – Lonjer/Longera-Trieste (Italy);
- Permanent Art Collection Gallery of Grisignana/Grožnjan (Croatia);
- Civic Museum of Karlovac, Collection of Contemporary Art (Croatia);
- “Academia Cravatica” – Zagreb (Croatia);
- Students House – Nova Gorica (Slovenia);
- Multicultural Centre “Karlo Rojc” – Pula (Croatia)
- “CMJ” – University of Zagreb, Faculty of Medicine (Croatia)
- Town of Srebrenica, Art Collection, (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Collage on canvas

“Razlikovanja / Differentiations” - Nova Gorica, Slovenia 2004.




Inside the dramatic context mediated through a well-finished pictorial narration by Igor Gustini, are being discovered messages that denote meditation. The collage in a full chromatic field that the author is composing in a sort of geometric figures having their own structure that recalls a certain form of texture, alludes to an organic and figurative connotation which is assuming at the same time the feature of an episodic tale. Such chromatic components that are extracted from a meditated “matrix” ranging between an organic and material nature, are mediating and launching a symbolic message on the level of personal transposition in the space, and as such of immediate actuality in terms of time. The composition of materials and the semantic note in the profusion of the correlative intercourses, leads to the perception of the whole content as a mosaic of impressions that have been lived in the environment context wherefrom they draw origin. The structure of divisionistic nature, the disposition of colours as well as the relevant range of diffusion, require from the spectator an aside vision, namely a visual perception of the painting from a certain distance. This true, heart-felt and lived research into the intimate dimensions that are even more emphasizing the meaning of the pictorial narration thereof, are opening the way to some perceptions that go beyond the outward structure thus with a straightaway identification with the essence of the painting and the author’s vision.

Tanja Cigoj (2004).

Igor Gustini attracted the attention of the public and critics several years ago with his textile collages, which he creates from discarded and found “rags” of various colors (frequently discarded painting rags from his colleagues, which imparts significance to the concepts of “chance spots” and “the continuity of events”). The effect of the regularly geometrically “tailored” “textiles,” glued to the canvas according to a reasoned visual system (but also according to a rational spatial system, because textile is “wrinkled” and thereby “spatial”), creates a coloristic effect nearly identical to that of the geometrically painted surfaces that are well-known to us from works of geometric abstraction. Here, nonetheless, in addition to the spatial-haptic effect of the collage –which is textile, with the characteristic category of the texture of the material and the structure of its surface, these works by Igor Gustini, in addition to their optical quality, have a marked quality, acting with their visual but also spatial –temporal dimensions.
That which at first glance captures attention is the strictly organized visual order, based upon the masterful and disciplined relations of colors, in the classically balanced composition and the organized dynamic relations within the frame of the picture. These are experiences which draw their roots from the great styles of 20th century modern art –from geometric and lyrical abstraction. Gustini, however, adds the informel experience of gesture here, that occurs with the final painting with oils (sometimes with a brush and sometimes dripping), while the collage, although in today’s art it is not new, functions here as a medium of constant exploration of the relations of the pictorial and the tactile; the structural and the material; the actual and the illusionary. The author constantly activates them here, via nearly all our sensors, an entire series of additional associations and visual-emotional events, because a collage can give everything an amazing two-dimensionality: touchable and untouchable; actual and unreal; spatially determined and that which has “shifted”; temporally close and indeterminate. Most often the daily and banal are transformed into the new and miraculous in a new harmony. In Gustini’s textile collages, this is particularly evident. Reality here is continuously “imploded,” so that reality, although tangible, is constantly transformed into abstraction –but geometrically coded and disciplined. In addition, there is also color, which ostensibly has absolute freedom (but also its added independent life as matter and as a textile material), placed under the control of the author, because Gustini perceives the space of
the picture from various vantage points. However, he then mutually harmonizes and disciplines them, providing a “geometric code” as a manner of access and a key to reading the works. Leading us thus to his perception based upon analytical observation, systematized within the solid, purified structure of the compositional raster –but also through which a dynamic situation of a tense relationship between the visual and haptic, between illusion and touch weaves simultaneously.
Collage —that enchanting “painting with scissors” (as Matisse called it), has long fascinated artists. It seems like play –and requires great concentration.
The collages of Igor Gustini with the help of snippets taken from known realities –taken from found material (or discarded material), create a new reality. Moreover, he shows particular interest in the architecture of the painting, always building a solid geometric structure and solid composition, while at the same time delicately imposing the duality of balanced simplicity and concentrated expressivity as the basic impression.
V. Slavica Gabout, 2008