Gianni Asdrubali's Dual Exhibition in Milan Charts His Abstract Trajectory

Two Milan galleries, A Arte Invernizzi and Galleria Artra, are jointly hosting 'L'altra pittura,' a comprehensive survey of Gianni Asdrubali's work from the 1980s to the present. Curated by Lorenzo Madaro, the exhibition traces the artist's evolution from his early breakout piece 'Diodiavolo' (1980) at Artra—described as the 'big bang' of his career—to recent site-specific works like the mural 'Chamorras' at Invernizzi. Asdrubali, born in Tuscania in 1955, emerged during the rise of the Italian Transavanguardia but pursued a radically different path, eschewing nostalgia for a practice rooted in the primal moment of painting's origin. His 1988 statement 'Painting begins where I do not paint' encapsulates this approach. Critic Lorenzo Mango in 1994 characterized it as 'painting on the brink, suspended over the abyss of art's border.' The exhibition highlights Asdrubali's connection to 'Astrazione Povera,' theorized by Filiberto Menna in the 1980s, and his unique brand of abstraction that critic Flavio Caroli termed 'heroic abstraction.' The works, including 'Nemico' (1987), demonstrate a continuous energy that resists fixed meaning, oscillating between figuration and abstraction. The show runs concurrently at both venues, offering a deep dive into Asdrubali's relentless, self-generating pictorial flow.