Giorgio Griffa. B. in Turin, 1936, where he lives and works.
He began painting as a child, taking lessons from local painters at the Circolo degli Artisti in Turin. After completing a degree in law in 1958, Griffa became a practicing lawyer.
In the sixties, Griffa began working as an assistant to the Italian painter Filippo Scroppo, a member of the MAC (Art Concreta Movement), and a teacher at the Accademia Albertina in Turin. In 1968, Giorgio Griffa abandoned figurative painting in favor of an abstract painting that still characterizes his work to this day.”Despite early associations with movements such as Arte Povera and Minimalism, Giorgio Griffa’s work was not exhibited in the United States for 40 years after his first solo exhibition in New York at Ileana Sonnabend’s gallery. In 2012, he had a solo exhibition – “Fragments 1968 – 2012” at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York. Roberta Smith wrote in the New York Times: “His art deserves a place in the world history of abstractions”. leading him to be named one of the “10 thrilling rediscoveries from 2012.
Giorgio Griffa exhibited first at Martano (1968), Sperone (1969), and Sonnabend gallery in New York in 1970 and participated in important international exhibitions such as Prospekt, Düsseldorf (1969 and 1974), Kunstmuseum in Lucerne (1970), Prospect in Düsseldorf (1969, 1973), São Paolo Bienal (1977, 2021) and the Venice Biennale (1978 and 1980 with a solo room, 2017). Other important early exhibitions include Processes of Visualized Thought: Young Italian Avant-garde, Kunstmuseum Luzern (1970) Painting Exhibition of Painters who Place Painting in Question, curated by Michel Claura, Stadtische Museum, Monchengladbach (1973).
Among the most recent solo shows: The informal in Italy, GAM Bologna (1983), An international adventure, Castello di Rivoli (1993), Italian Art Last forty years, GAM Bologna (1998), The Thresholds of Painting, Rocca Paolina, Perugia (1999), Time & Place, Moderna Museet Stockholm (2008), MACRO, Rome (2011), Trinity College Dublin (2014), Center d’Art Contemporain Geneva (2015), Bergen Kunsthall Bergen (2015), Giuliani Foundation Rome (2016), Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles (2016), Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Serralves Porto (2016), Camden Arts Center London (2018), Colors, Castello di Rivoli (2017), Writing while drawing, CAC Geneva (2020), The Botanical Mind, Camden Art Centre London (2020), Palazzo Collicola Spoleto (2020), LAM Lille (2021), Centre Pompidou Paris 2022.
His works are in the most prestigious private and institutional collections, in Italy and abroad. In 2013 the Tate acquired the large canvas Horizontal Signs, for its permanent collection display.