Biography
THE BIOGRAPHY OF GIANLUIGI PESCIO
“...Always a spiritual refuge, painting has been the second track of my existential journey,the first being surgery and in the middle, always, my family...” It is in this way that Gianluigi Pescio metaphorically represents his life.
Born in Genoa, 28th June, 1948, medical doctor, top clinician since 1994, he ran the General and Thoracic Surgery Division of Imperia until 2007; he introduced thoracic surgery to Western Liguria. Professor at Genoa University from 1987 to 2009.
He has done intensive scientific work in the field of functional oesophageal and gastric surgery, pancreatic, acute abdominal compartment syndrome and “open abdomen” surgery. Winner of the International College of Surgeons Award – Italy 1986 for his works on 99mTc HIDA hepatobiliary imaging to detect the upper abdominal surgery.
He began drawing with great passion as a child (Concorso FILA Pastelli Giotto Award for elementary schools) and started painting in 1968 guided by a family friend, who was a fine water colourist. In addition to oil painting, from 1979 he expanded into water colouring and etching. He loves to experiment with different materials considering fine paper to be of equal quality to canvas, and often mounting it onto a wooden frame.
From 1968 to 2010 he dedicated himself to landscapes moving more and more towards divisionism and the limits of liquid fading; the colours are all in the scale of pearl greys. In October 2010, his younger brother Stefano passed away, after fourteen months of suffering. In the last months of this period, spent in a defeatist mode, no matter how aware the surgeon was regarding the undeniable incurability of the disease, colours disappeared from his mind and gave way to black and white landscapes, or to be more precise, Achromes; deconstruction of architectural forms and volumes were intensified and the landscape began to reach the extreme and uncertain fringes of a mirage before slipping into the informal.
At the beginning of 2011, suddenly, he began to develop monochrome minimalism
on rusty iron, a metaphor of the signs left by life's events made even more incisive with the welding of 18th century Genoese nails and steel spheres. On the the rusty metal plate, in parallel to monochrome, a simultaneous spontaneous subaqueous action painting develops, which is evocative of infinity, silence and the immensity of thought. He has given this latest cycle of monochrome and subaqueous iron plates the title of“.. on the open high sea..”: the words of Ulysses in the XXVI Canto of Dante's Inferno evoke the metaphorical meaning of a journey across the ocean of the spirit.The most recent research in the field of the minimalist sculpture-painting using rusted iron is focused on monochrome collage, titled “ Middle Age cycle”. He also develops a cycle dedicated to Shoah and Terezin.
Since his first solo exhibition in 1973 to date he has held numerous solo exhibitions in institutional halls and private galleries of Imperia, Savona, Turin, Venice and Genoa. He has taken part in many collectives, national and international competitions. In 2000 he received the Special Judges' Award at the Biennale Internazionale di Sanremo; silver medalist in 2002 at the Espoarte Awards of Albissola, where he displayed two of his works at the Civic Museum of Contemporary Art. In the same year he took part in Settimane d'Autore, Priamar, Savona. In 2006 he published a small volume of poems “Tears of Light”, illustrated with watercolours: it would become the catalogue for his personal exhibition of the same title, held in Imperia (Amadeo Editore, Imperia). In 2008 he participated in national and international expos (Grenoble, Genoa, Bari, Reggio Emilia). In 2010 the City of Imperia dedicated to him a solo exhibition“Landscape and Fading”in the Civic Gallery, its catalogue featuring a presentation and critical writings by Luciano Caprile. The second edition of the exhibition was held in 2012 in Genova, Il Punto Gallery. 8-29 may 2013, solo exhibition in the Museo di Sant’Agostino in Genova. Since January 2012 to april 2013 he is one of the artists of ARTETIVU-Artetivulab.
Since October 2012 to april 2013 he is an artist of Collezione Orler- Orler Factory.
He has been written about by Luciano Caprile, Eugenia Chiesa,Stefano Delfino, Rodolfo Falchi, Marco Malì, Giovanni Grasso Fravega, Caterina Garibbo Siri, Flavia Soldato, Viviana Emilia Spada, Adelmo Taddei,Sara Todeschini, Valerie Wadsworth; Il Corriere dell'Arte, La Stampa, Il Secolo XIX, Des Arts-Galleria viaggiante.
His works are displayed in public and private collections in Genoa, Imperia, Savona, Ventimiglia, Diano Marina, Bordighiera, Orbetello, Milan, Parma, Turin, Venice, Siena, Marsala, Halifax (GB), Edimburgh, Boston,
