April's New Art Books: From Capogrossi to AI and Ecoqueer Aesthetics

A selection of new art books for April 2025 covers photography, art, technology, and social criticism. Gianni Contessi's 'Capogrossi. Le drammaturgie del Segno. Una rilettura' (Christian Marinotti edizioni, 144 pp, €22) offers a personal reinterpretation of Giuseppe Capogrossi's work, focusing on his transition from figurative tonalism to abstract 'Segno'. Valentina Tanni's 'Conversazioni con la macchina' (Tlon, 96 pp, €12) examines the relationship between art and AI through metaphors of the machine as daughter, lover, or wild animal. Dario Alì and Vincenzo Grasso's 'Natura contronatura. Estetica ecoqueer' (Meltemi, 296 pp, €20) intertwines ecology and queer theory to challenge normative concepts of nature via contemporary arts. Alessandra Franetovich's 'L’arte italiana e il post 1989. Domeniche alla periferia dell’impero' (Postmedia books, 136 pp, €16), part of the Panorama dell’arte italiana del XXI secolo project by Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma, analyzes Italian art post-Berlin Wall fall, focusing on memory, identity, and self-organization. Massimo Sciacca's 'Prima del Duemila' (LullaBit, 176 pp, €39.50) documents Bologna's counterculture scene from the 1980s-1990s, including social centers like Link and TPO. Massimo Riva's 'Giochi d’ombra' (Einaudi, 388 pp, €38) traces the history of visual technologies from magic lanterns to phantasmagoria, linking them to cinema and virtual reality.