Luigi Ontani (b. 1943) holds a singular position in the contemporary art landscape. Dealing since the beginning of the 1970s with such notions and topics as identity and sexuality, the sacred and the profane, the hybrid and the kitsch, and Occidental and Oriental cultures, he creates a corpus of art works that are qualified by their polymorphous aspect and their denial of boundaries. Whether in his photographic portraits in which he impersonates Leonardo, Dante, Pinocchio, or San Sebastian, in his ceramic or papier-mâché sculptures, in his large paintings, or in his early video works, he affects a new reading of art history, postmodernism, and
appropriation strategies.
See also
Emanuele Trevi & Giovanna Silva: Ontani in Bali.
