Stefano Bianchi (1964)

 

Biography

 

Born in Italy in 1964, he discovered photography at the age of 12 through a small Kodak Instamatic camera found in a drawer. A self-taught photographer, after dabbling in various fields from photojournalism to fashion photography, he specialized in still life photography in the studio. At a young age, he collaborated with Condé Nast Editions (Vogue) in Milan, producing numerous editorial image series. In the early 1990s, he resided in France, alternating collaborations with the press (Vogue, Glamour, L’Officiel, Jalouse, Madame Figaro, Libération, Télérama, etc.) and advertising campaigns for major agencies. From the 2000s onwards, with the advent of digital photography, he gradually distanced himself from commissioned work to focus on personal research centered on light and material.

 

 

Exhibitions

 

"Festival de la Mode et de la Photo d’Hyères," Villa Noailles, 2004

"Stracci," Galerie Philippe Chaume, Paris, 2005

"Stracci," Città delle Donne, Naples, 2006

"Stracci," MUDAM Luxembourg, 2006

"Art & Me," MUDAM Luxembourg, 2015

"Vies silencieuses," Galerie Camera Obscura, Paris, 2016

"Grandes Ouvertes," Isba Besançon, 2017

"La Ronde," Centre Photographique Rouen/Normandie, 2019

"De Brescia à Gamagöri" (with Masao Yamamoto), Strasbourg, 2019

"Le hasard ne visite jamais les sots," In Extremis, Strasbourg, 2021

"Photographies," La Maison de Brian, Simiane-la-Rotonde, 2022

"La part des Choses," La Petite Semaine, Paris, 2023

"Inside," Cité Radieuse Le Corbusier, Marseille, 2023

"Le parti pris des Choses," CRP Hauts-de-France, Douchy-les-Mines, 2024

 

Permanent Collections:

 

MUDAM (Museum of Modern Art) Luxembourg

Artothèque de Strasbourg

 

 

What has been said about his work:

 

"...and indeed, the creators presented here, among the greatest of the 20th century, from Méliés to Josef Sudek or Dora Maar, to their most contemporary descendants (Valérie Belin or Stefano Bianchi, among others) all have in common the fact that they have, as common consciousness puts it, 'shifted the boundaries.' They have refused pre-established boundaries to venture ever further, without fear, towards otherness and the unknown..." (Laurent Devèze, about the exhibition "Grandes Ouvertes," 2017)

"With his cleverly composed photographs of rags, Stefano Bianchi (1964) represents, with much humor, the world in all its futility. A world where appearance and exaggerated self-esteem become primary through the purchase of luxury clothing. Rags and waste become symbols of a life too short and the passage of time. With these representations of the vanity of the modern world, the artist questions the value of material things and beautiful images." (Press release for the exhibition "Art & Me," MUDAM Luxembourg)

"Stefano Bianchi's work does not testify to any event other than the artist's gaze; like a painter, Stefano Bianchi explores the material of his medium. The approach is minimalist and the work is of dazzling pictorial richness." (Raphaëlle Stopin, 2019)

"Not all rise to the level of Jan Fabre at the Louvre, alas! but some masterfully meet the challenge. Suspended between looms, carders, and other imposing machines, Stefano Bianchi's large-format photographs appear perfectly at home in the spaces of this textile factory; at home yet subtly out of place, like specters of what was once the essence of this place. On each photograph, old mops, rectangles of degraded, labor-worn fabric, as beautiful as old, wrinkled faces." (Colin Cyvoct, "L’œil," March 2019. About the exhibition "La Ronde")

"Here, a few books become the subject of his photographic meditations on the passage of time and its erasure, on the time yet to be written, around a few (almost) empty pages. In constant balance between reality and abstraction, these open pages are a simple invitation to go beyond the subject to access a mental space where the object is no longer an object but pure perception." (Raphaëlle Stopin, press release "Le parti pris des Choses," 2024)

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