The Art of Francesco Parisi

Text and images reposted from one of my favorite publishers of esoterica, Fulgur Limited. Many Thanks!

Biography

Francesco Parisi was born in Rome in 1972. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti where he first encountered the works of William Blake and Francesco Mazzola. His first one man exhibition was during 1995, at the Gallery Guy in Paris. Later he returned to Italy and deepened his study of wood-engraving technique. In his paintings and engravings between 1998 and 2002 we see an exploration of the themes and subjects relating to Dionysus. In 2002 Emanuel Bardazzi curated an exhibition of Parisi’s prints at the Gabinetto delle Stampe of the Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Cagliari. In the same year he gained a grant for engraving at the Kultur-Institute Villa Romana Florenz in Florence – once the studio home of the German engraver Max Klinger. Between 2001 and 2004 personal exhibitions followed in Italy and abroad.

In 2005 a catalogue raisonné of Francesco’s engraved work was published, edited by Arianna Mercanti and with a preface by Maria Teresa Benedetti. In 2006 the artist moved to New York for one year where he taught wood-engraving technique at the Centre for the Book Arts, while preparing for an exhibition at the Caelum Gallery.

Francesco writes regularly and is the author of essays and articles in specialised magazines and catalogues on Italian and European graphic art of the early nineteenth century. He has curated national exhibitions and written accompanying publications for museums and private art galleries in the Italy. His prints may be found in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des estampes et de la photographie, Paris; the Royal Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp; and the British Museum, Departments of Prints and Drawings, London. He is currently Professor of Printmaking at the University of Fine Arts, Rome and at Accademia di Belle Arti di Foggia.