Giuseppe Penone

Giuseppe Penone, a member of the Italian Arte Povera group, is an artist who creates conceptual sculptures and performance-based works. His art decidely explores the tension between humans and their environment; in doing so, he often utilizes unconventional materials and practices, including his own body. For instance, during the 1970s, Penone experimented with images of his skin that he then projected onto various surfaces like walls or plaster casts. For later works, he would grow vegetables into the shape of his face, which he then cast in bronze.

Penone was born in Garessio, Italy, in 1947, and currently lives and works in Turin and Paris. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arte in Turin, and his early exhibitions at MoMA and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam established him as an art-world force, who went on to win the Turner Prize in 1989. In 2004, the Centre Georges Pompidou mounted a retrospective of his work. He has shown at institutions and festivals the world over, including at dOCUMENTA and the Venice Biennale, the latter on multiple occasions.