Bio

Lorenzo Oggiano (b. 1964, Padua) is an Italian interdisciplinary artist, primarily working in new media, video, video installation, and photography. He holds an MA cum laude in Visual Arts from the University of Bologna / D.A.M.S., with a thesis exploring the relationship between art and new technologies.

His works have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and art spaces in Italy and internationally, including: Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Ars Electronica Center, Cinémathèque Française, Eyebeam Art+Technology Center, National Museum/WRO Art Center, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Kunsthaus Dresden, Hong Kong Space Museum, Palazzo dei Congressi in Rome, CCCB, Art-Science Node Berlin, MAN, Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, and Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin—and are featured in public and private collections.

Lorenzo Oggiano currently lives and works in Sassari, Italy.

Statement

Lorenzo Oggiano works with both digital and traditional artistic techniques. Since the mid-2000s, he has favored 3D software and creative programming to generate art prints, videos, and video installations.

Oggiano dedicated his artistic and theoretical research to the concepts of nature and life, questioning the relationships between technologies, registers of rationality, production of subjectivity, and cosmologies. His focus includes the morphology and dynamics of organisms and ecosystems, the concept of space, and space-time interrelations.

He began exploring photography and drawing at young age. After completing his academic training, he entered a period of study and research focused on adopting a transdisciplinary and cross-media approach to artistic production. He then dedicated himself to experimenting with various techniques and materials, creating pictorial interventions on previously elaborated plotter-printed photographs and assemblages made with found photos, wood, fabrics, leather, glass, wax, foam rubber, and pigments. A phase of exploration culminated in the 2003 Sample-Kit project, which served both technically—by bringing together assembly techniques, analog photography, and digital processing—and theoretically—by anticipating themes that would become central in his subsequent works—serving as a junction point that marked the beginning of his ongoing artistic research path within a defined technical approach and a more articulated theoretical framework.

The first studies for the Quasi-Objects cycle—indicating the artist’s earliest use of 3D techniques—date back to 2003.

Completed in 2013, the cycle consists of ten videos and over one hundred prints, studies, and preparatory drawings. 3D modeling and animation techniques are used to simulate organisms and ecosystems conceived as transient outputs of a practice of “organic re-design.”

Since 2006, the artist has abandoned the chemical photography process in favor of independently producing prints with pigment inks on archival-quality paper—considered the standard by museums and art galleries—thus gaining complete control over the production of his art prints and ensuring a significant improvement in both quality and longevity.

From this period, Oggiano intensifies his exhibition activities and begins collaborations with artists, publishing houses, and record labels, enhancing his artistic production by broadening concepts, techniques, and stylistic solutions.

Among the several projects he has created in the last two decades, alongside the previously mentioned Quasi-Objects cycle, it is worth noting: Sound Generated Video Modules for Single Channel Output (Video Installation and Fine Art Prints, 2007)—two sound-generated AV modules conceived to perform sound-generated visual data as pure dynamic abstraction; Polymorphic Systems Studies (Fine Art Prints, 2012-2015)—two series of photorealistic 3D rendering studies that explore and visualize polymorphic synth-organisms, bio-tools, and bio-machines; Environmental Monitoring System (Video Installation, Fine Art Prints, and Plotted Prints, 2016)—a 4-channel AV installation conceived as a simulation of a multi-camera monitoring system designed to document the real-time dynamics of four complex ecosystems: a further reflection on the statute of synthetic imagery; t.SPACEs (UV Prints, 2017)—a series of large-format prints investigating the notion of topological space; Untitled Sculpture (3D Printed Sculpture, 2018)—an AP medium-sized sculpture printed with a Delta WASP 60100 and finished with a bi-component epoxy resin, a plastic anchoring primer, a water-based titanium white spray pigment, and a glossy water-based anti-UV acrylic varnish; Micrographies / Photomicrographies (Fine Art Prints, 2020)—a set of 3D-generated prints designed to mimic the observation of the morphologies and dynamics of microorganisms, cells, and molecules through a microscope; Postnatural History Footage (Videos, 2021-2022)—an ongoing series of video works that simulate short scientific-naturalistic videos and films from the 1900s; User-Driven Particle System Variations (Fine Art Prints, 2023)—twelve visionary abstract landscapes generated through a customized, user-assisted particle system generation program.

Since 2021, Lorenzo Oggiano has become actively involved in the NFT market on the Tezos blockchain, primarily as a collector. As a creator, he has produced six limited-edition works, which are now available on the secondary market.

Currently, he is developing new works using his previously mentioned preferred techniques (mainly intended for the traditional art market), along with a series created with a custom AI image generator. This series, currently in the post-production phase, will be minted in the coming months.

Selected Exhibitions, Events, Festivals, and Art Fairs

• One more time with feeling – The Wrong Biennale, Alicante, Spain, 2021/2022
• Ibrida. Festival delle Arti Intermediali – Forlì, Italy, 2020
• In Absentia – Digital pavilion at The Wrong Biennale, 2020
• Trondheim International Biennale for Art & Technology – ‘Meta.Morf X / Digital Wild’ exhibition, Trondheim kunstmuseum Gråmølna, Trondheim, Norway, 2020
• FIVA 09 – Festival Internacional de Videoarte, Centro Cultural San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2019
• Mock Jungle, DAS – Dispositivo Arti Sperimentali, Bologna, Italy, 2019
• Art Innovation, Art & Technology in the future – International Symposium & Exhibition, Kyoto University, Conference Room Higashi Ichijokan, Kyoto, Japan, 2019
• See Yourself E(x)ist – Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York City, U.S.A., 2018/2019
• Environmental Monitoring System @ Montecristo Project – Mediterranean Sea, Italy, 2017 (Solo)Patchlab International Digital Art Festival, Krakow, Poland, 2017
• Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF), PostFuture Journey – Athens International Airport ‘Eleftherios Venizelos’, Athens, Greece, 2017
• Segovia European Film Festival – Museo Esteban Vicente (MUCES), Segovia, Spain, 2016
• Patchlab International Digital Art Festival – Krakow, Poland, 2016
• Bio-Fiction Hong-Kong, Microwave International Media Art Festival – Lecture Hall, Hong Kong Space Museum, Hong Kong, China, 2016
• Bio-Fiction Barcelona, Human+ The future of our species – CCCB, Barcelona, Spain, 2016
• Madatac International Festival of Contemporary Audio-Visual & New Media Art / Art for a Quantum of Time – [Award, Best Video Art Work], CentroCentro Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid, Spain, 2016
• Bio-Fiction Poznan, Capture the Future(s) Evolution – UAM University, Faculty of Biology, Poznan, Poland, 2015
• 7th Cairo Video Art&Experimental Film Festival – French Institute, Cairo, Egypt, 2015
• FILE Electronic Language International Festival/The new e-motion, Anima+ – C.C. FIESP, São Paulo, Brazil, 2015
• Future Perfect – Rialto Sant’Ambrogio, Rome, Italy, 2015
• Bio-Fiction Berlin, Capture the Future(s), Art Science Node, Berlin, Germany, 2015
• Bio-Fiction Linz – Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria, 2014
• Bio-Fiction, Science Art Film Festival – Naturhistorisches Museum/Bellaria Cinema, Vienna, Austria, 2014
• Zielona Sciezka/Natura-Sztuka-Technologia – WRO Art Center, Media Library Curatorial Program, Wroclaw, Poland, 2014
• Design Beyond Making – Protein Gallery /18 Hewett Street, London, U.K., 2013
• Drift: Synthesis – TTC Screens Network, Toronto, Canada, 2013
• Imagem-Contato – Mostra de Imagem em Movimento, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2012
• Caratteri Ereditari e Mutazioni Genetiche – MAN_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy, 2012
• Flussi New Media Arts Festival – Belvedere Teatro Carlo Gesualdo, Avellino, Italy, 2011
• Bio-Fiction, Synthetic Biology Science, Art and Film Festival – Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria, 2011
• Minimalelectro im Festsaal Kreuzberg, Bergsaal Kreuzhein – Berlin, Germany, 2011
• Videoformes on Tour – Espace Beaujon, Paris, France  – The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, U.S.A. – Hors D’Oeuvre, Shangai, China, 2010
• Pandemonio Visuale. Italian Experimental Cinema – Mostra del cinema d’artista italiano dalle origini del futurismo al nuovo millennio, Cinemazzurro, Ancona, Italy, 2009
• Eter(n)otopìe, Recent Works 2002-2009, Settimana della Fotografia Europea, ReVolt#09: Eternaluce  – Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2009 (Solo)
• Palinsesti 2009, Licof, Scenari artistici dell’Alto Adriatico – San Vito al Tagliamento (PN), Italy, 2009
• ArtVerona, Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art – Fair Center, Verona, Italy, 2009
• Tecnobiologìe – Traffic Gallery Contemporary Art, Bergamo, Italy, 2009 (Solo)
• Between Earth and Sky – Sadali (CA), Italy, 2009
• MiArt, International Art Fair, – Fiera Milano City, Milan, Italy, 2009
• Video Screening – Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoon, Finland, 2009
• Directors Lounge 09 – Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Germany, 2009
• 3rd Beijing Independent Film Festival – Songzhuang Art Center, Songzhuang – Beijing, China, 2008
• Quasi-Objects B/W – Rebecca Container Gallery, Genova, Italy, 2008 (Solo)
• De Rerum Digitalis, Festival della Creatività – Fortezza da Basso, Firenze, Italy, 2008
• Taide ’08, Helsinki Contemporary Art Fair – Wanna Satama, Helsinki, Finland, 2008
• Lorenzo Oggiano: Selected Video Works 2004-2008 / Opening Night Party Special Screening, ViewFest – Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Sala Massimo + King Kong Microplex, Torino, Italy, 2008 (Solo)
• Contemporary Art Ruhr 08 – KunstQuadrate, Essen, Germany, 2008
• La Nuit Blanche – Instituto Cervantes, Paris, France, 2008
• 1 Minute Suite Top Ten – Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy, 2008
• KunStart08, Contemporary Art Fair – Bolzano Fair Exhibition Center, Bozen, Italy, 2008
• Digital Media Valencia – La Nau, Valencia, Spain, 2008
• Cartes Flux3, Perception, Time, Subject – Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoon, Finland, 2008
• Videoformes, Prix de la Crèation Vidèo – Clermont-Ferrand, France, 2008
• BAF Bergamo Arte Fiera 2008 – Bergamo Fair Center, Bergamo, Italy, 2008
• Quasi-Objects – Traffic Gallery Contemporary Art – Bergamo, Italy, 2008 (Solo)
• Directors Lounge – Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin, Germany, 2008
• Optica – International Videoart Festival, Gijon, Spain, 2007
• VideominutoPopTV, New Italian Wave/One Minute Suite – Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy, 2007
• Art-Athina International Art Fair, Kataskevi Project – Helexpo Exhibition and Conference Center, Athens, Greece, 2007
• WRO07 International Media Art Biennale – National Museum + WRO Art Center, Wroclav, Poland, 2007
• Kinofest – National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest, Romania, 2007
• Festival Némo – Le Cube, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, 2007
• Selected Videos 2004-2007 – Dissonanze 7, Aula Magna, Palazzo dei Congressi, Rome, Italy, 2007 (Solo)
• Athens Video Art Festival – Technopolis, Athens, Greece, 2007
• Cartes Flux Vol.2 – Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoon, Finland, 2007
• Directors Lounge 2007 – Directors Lounge, Berlin, Germany, 2007
• CYNETart06, Humane, 10th International Festival for Computer-Based Art –  [Special Recognition], Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau, Kunsthaus Dresden, Dresden, Germany, 2006
• ArtTechMedia – Arco06, Madrid – Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid – CCCB, Barcelona – other venues, Spain, 2006
• Hybridation/Heredite I. Le cinéma expérimental contemporain et les nouvelles technologies selon Johanna Vaude – Cinémathèque Française, Paris, France, 2006
• Premio Internazionale di Videoarte Biennale Adriatica Arti Nuove – S. Benedetto del Tronto (AN), Italy, 2006
• Interferenze, Naturalis Electronica – San Martino Val Caudina (AV), Italy, 2006
• Imaginaria Independent Film Festival – Chiostro S. Benedetto, Conversano (BA), Italy, 2006
• Panorama Screening Series: Living Culture. A look at the relationship between biotechnology and artistic practices – Eyebeam, New York, U.S.A., 2006
• Images Contre nature – Lices, Marseille, France, 2006
• Darklight Film Festival – Filmbase, Dublin, Ireland, 2006
• MAF Thailand New Media Arts Festival, Live and Retrospective – Bangkok, Thailand, 2006
• Figures of Motion, Internationale Videokunst – Schloss Plüschow, Plüschow, Germany, 2006
• Videoformes – La Jetèe, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 2006
• Cartes Flux Vol.1 – Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoon, Finland, 2006
• Directors Lounge 2006 – Directors Lounge, Berlin, Germany, 2006
• Cartes Flux, First Flux – Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoo, Finland, 2005
• VAD Video and Digital Arts International Festivals – Casa de Cultura, Girona, Spain, 2005
• Unimovie – Museo Vittoria Colonna, Pescara / Museo-Laboratorio ex-manifattura tabacchi, Città Sant’Angelo (PE), Italy, 2005
• Electrofringe New media Arts Festival 2005 – Playhouse Theatre, Newcastle, Australia, 2005
• Media Art Friesland festival – Leeuwarden, Netherlands, 2005
• Imaginaria Independent Film Festival – Chiostro S. Benedetto, Conversano (BA), Italy, 2005
• European Media Art Festival (EMAF) – Lagerhalle, Großer Saal, Osnabrück, Germany, 2005
• Today in Paradise. Genetics & Art – Röda Sten, Gotheborg, Sweden, 2005
• Thailand New Media Arts Festival (MAF), Intimacy/Digital Skin – Bed Supper Club, Bangkok, Thailand, 2005
• Spark Video 4.4 – Spark Contemporary Art Space, Syracuse, NY, U.S.A., 2005
• Premio Internazionale Dino Villani Linguaggi e tecniche della contemporaneità nell’arte e nella comunicazione – Galleria del Premio, Suzzara (MN), Italy, 2004
• International Videoart – Galerìa Rosa Santos, València, Spain, 2004
• VAIA 3rd International Video Art Show of Alcoi – official selection, Alcoi, Spain, 2004
• International Festival of New Film and New Media – Split, Croatia, 2004
• Australian International Festival of Photography – Global Gallery Exhibition Centre, Sydney, Australia, 2004
• MAD03 2nd international meeting of experimental art in Madrid – Madrid, Spain, 2003
• Biennale Adriatica Arti Nuove, Baan Lab – Mercato Ittico, San Benedetto del Tronto (AN), Italy, 2003
• IDAA International Digital Art Awards – Academy Gallery, University of Tasmania Launceston, Australia – VCA Gallery, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 2003
• Immedia03 – School of Art and Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A., 2003

Public Collections (Selection)

• Cinémathèque Française – Paris, France
• Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci – Prato, Italy
• Eyebeam Art + Technology Center – New York, NY, U.S.A.
• Association Culturelle VideoFormes – Clermont-Ferrand, France
• WRO Art Center – Wroclaw, Poland
• Spark Contemporary Art Space Video Library – Syracuse, NY, U.S.A.
• Directors Lounge Contemporary Art and Media – Berlin, Germany
• EMAF – Osnabrück, Germany
• Vidéothèque P’Silo – Marseille, France
• Cartes Centre of Art and Technology – Espoo, Finland

Selected Bibliography (Catalogues, Reviews, Articles, Interviews)

• Cesare Biasini Selvaggi – Valentino Catricalà, Arte e tecnologia del terzo millennio. Scenari e protagonisti / “Art and Technology inthe Third Millennium. Landscapes and Protagonists (ITA/ENG), Farnesina – I Quaderni della Collezione, Vol. II, Electa, Milan, 2020
• Eline Bjerkan, Teknologiske blindveier, Billedkunst n. 2/2020, Oslo, Norway
• Meta.Morf X – Digital Wild, Trondheim International Biennale for Art and Technology, TEKS.press, Trondheim, Norway, 2020 (catalogue)
• Ecosistemi nel re-design organico di Lorenzo Oggiano, intervista per WASP (www.3dwasp.com – a cura di Andrea Nurcis), April 2019
• Käthe Wenzel – Manfred Blohm, HalfLife. Maschinen und Organismen, künstlerische Positionen für eine Gegenwart von Klimawandel und Artensterben / Machines and Organisms, Artistic Positions in Times of Climate Change and Extinction (DE/ENG), Fabrico Verlag, Hannover, Germany, 2018
• Environmental Monitoring System @ Montecristo Project, Cagliari, Italy, 2018 (catalogue)
• Madeline Schwartzman, See Yourself X – Human Futures Expanded, Black Dog Press Limited, London, U.K., 2018
• Lorenzo Oggiano, TRP-21 n.02 / Arte Digital, Facultad de Arquitectura, diseño y urbanismo de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2015
• Trend 2015, TCDC Digital Resource, Thailand Creative & Design Center, Thailand, 2015
• More about Quasi-Objects, Quote the Future. The nordic vision of tomorrow – www.quotethefuture.com, July 2014 (interview – by Sara Ingemann Holm-Nielsen)
• Dominic Pettman, Look at the Bunny. Totem, Taboo, Technology, Zero Books, John Hunt Publishing, U.K., 2013
• Luca Panaro, Arte in 3D, esplorazioni di una disciplina., Flash Art, n. 309, 2013
• Trend Report / Macro Trend: Reality and digital collide, Computer Arts Collection n.5 / Photography, 2012
• Bianca Wendt – Lorenzo Oggiano, Plastic Measures, Viewpoint, n.30, 2012
• Alice Aurelitano (curated by), The Cinematic Experience. Film, Contemporary Art, Museum, Campanotto Editore, Udine, Italy, 2010
• Piero Pala, Lorenzo Oggiano. Suhteellisuus ja hybridi Quasi-Objektien elokuvallisina tekijöinä, Taide Design, n.7, Espoon, Finland, 2010
• Emanuela Pezzetta (curated by), Palinsesti / Licôf, Forum Editrice Università Udinese, Udine, Italy, 2009 (catalogue)
• Luca Beatrice, L’isola che non c’era, Arte, n.431, 2009
• Claudia Bernareggi, Lorenzo Oggiano, Espoarte Contemporay Art, n.59, 2009
• Cartes Flux3. Perception, Time, Subject., Cartes Centre of Art & Technology, Espoo, Finland, 2008 (catalogue)
• Stephen Danzig, The Vernacular Terrain. Internationl Digital Art projects, Red Box Studio, Sydney, Australia, 2008 (catalogue)
• Simone Arcagni, Come la tecnologia della visione puó diventare occasione artistica, Nova 24, June 5, Milan, 2008
• Talent / Digital, Kult magazine, n.5, Rome, 2008
• Stefania Biamonti, Vite Artificiali, Il Fotografo, n.190, Milan, 2008
• Quasi-Objects, Traffic Gallery, Bergamo, Italy, 2008 (catalogue)
• Quasi Objects project by Lorenzo Oggiano, Digimag, n.29, 2007 – www.digicult.it (interview – by Bertram Niessen)
• Videominuto PopTV2007, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy, 2007 (catalogue)
• 12th International Media Art Biennale WRO 07, Wroclaw, Poland, 2007 (catalogue)
• Cartes Flux vol. 2, Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoo, Finland, 2007 (catalogue)
• CYNETart_06humane – 10. Internationales Festival für computergestützte Kunst, Festspielhaus Hellerau / Kunsthaus Dresden – Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau e V., Dresden, Germany, 2006 (catalogue)
• Manfred Blohm, Texte zur Medienkunst, Flensburg University Press, Flensburg, Germany, 2006
• Darklight Festival, Irish Film Istitute / Filmbase, Dublin, Ireland, 2006 (catalogue)
• Simonetta Castia, I Quasi Objects di Lorenzo Oggiano. Bambole e new media, Plico, n. 10, Sassari, 2006
• Cartes Flux vol. 1, Cartes Centre of Art and Technology, Espoo, Finland, 2006 (catalogue)
• VAIA 2005 – IV. Mostra de video art internacional d’Alcoi, Alcoi, Spain, 2005 (catalogue)
• Unimovie, Flash Art, n. 254, Milan, 2005
• Media Art Friesland Festival, Leeuwarden / Harlingen / Drachten, Netherland, 2005 (catalogue)
• Imaginaria – III. Festival Internazionale del cinema libero, Conversano (Bari), Italy, 2005 (catalogue)
• EMAF / European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany, 2005 (catalogue)
• Astrid Von Rosen, Vems paradis talar vi om?, Göteborgsposten, Gothenburg, April 2, 2005
• VAIA 2004 – III. Mostra de video art internacional d’Alcoi, Alcoi, Spain, 2004 (catalogue)
• Laura Chiari, Networking as Artworking, NextExit, n.18, Rome, 2004
• Steve Danzig – W. J. Cosshall, 2003 International Digital Art Awards, Digital Photography + Design Magazine, n. 23, 2003
• Artinuove, 2ennale Adriatica, S. B. del Tronto, Ancona, Italy, 2003 (catalogue)
• Franco Lanfredi (curated by), Web Designer Experiments, Edizioni Sometti, Mantova, Italy, 2003