I am an Italian artist and researcher with an interdisciplinary approach to the Visual Arts. I am interested in image-agency and visual affect, which I explore through a variety of means from drawing to research.
I am a co-founder of the visual culture journal Anima Loci, a founding member and curator for El Cocuy Projects, and a co-curator at the Drawing Tube. I have taught art theory and practices at various HEI and universities in Europe, including the Camberwell College of Arts, the University of Westminster, Brescia’s Accademia SantaGiulia, London Metropolitan University and the Academy of Fine Arts of Verona. I hold a PhD in Cognitive Anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. I live between Italy and the UK.
EDUCATION
2019 PhD in Visual Anthropology, EHESS, Paris, France
2011 MA in Visual Arts; IUAV University, Venice, Italy
2007 BA in Visual Arts; Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, Italy
SOLO AND JOINT EXHIBITIONS
2017 Everything Was Quiet, Centre For Recent Drawing, London, United Kingdom
2015 30 Clouds, Narrenkastl, Frohnleiten (Graz), Austria
2014 Paesaggio Incompleto, Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, Italy
2011 Tommaso Gorla, Studio D’Arte Cannaviello, Milan, Italy
2007 Tommaso Gorla, Sesto Senso, Bologna, Italy
GROUP SHOWS
2023 Vozes da Paisagem, FBAUP, Porto, Portugal
2023 A Little Closer, Aleph Contemporary, London, United Kingdom
2022 Signals, NADiff a/p/a/r/t 1F, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
2022 Drawing Symposium, Calcutta House, London, United Kingdom
2018 Museo D’Inverno: Collezione di Luigi Presicce, Museo D’Inverno, Siena, Italy
2016 Sixty, Lubomirov-Angus Hughes, London, United Kingdom
2016 Previsouly, Patricia Armocida Gallery, Milan, Italy
2015 The Indipendent Artist Fair 2015, Rag Factory, London, United Kingdom
2015 15/h24, Ex Mobilificio Galleria Bertoni, Cervignano del Friuli, Italy
2015 A5, Art Athina / Lubomirov Easton Gallery, Athens, Greece
2014 Surviving the Savage Sea, Centre For Recent Drawing, London, United Kingdom
2012 Anni ’10 (Studio d’Arte Cannaviello), Interno 18, Cremona, Italy
2011 Anni ’10, State Institute of Culture (Studio d’Arte Cannaviello), Sophia, Bulgaria
2011 La Pittura e Il Segno, Ex Ospedale Soave, Codogno, Italy
2010 Anni ’10, Studio d’Arte Cannaviello, Milan, Italy
2010 MiArt, Studio d’Arte Cannaviello, Milan, Italy
2010 Sweet Sheets, Zelle Arte Contemporanea, Palermo, Italy
2010 Le Ragioni della Leggerezza, EffeArte, Milan, Italy
2009 L’immagine Sottile 03, G.C.A.C., Monfalcone, Italy
2009 We Can Be Heroes, Galleria 1000Eventi, Milan, Italy
2009 Illustrators Exhibition, Chosun Ilbo Museum, Seoul, South Korea
2009 Carboni, Ferretti, Gorla. Stazione Rogers, Trieste, Italy
2009 Un Oscuro Scrutare Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milan, Italy
2009 Stile Libero Italiano, Studio d’Arte Cannaviello, Milan, Italy
2008 92ma Collettiva Giovani Artisti, Galleria Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Italy
2008 Working 4, Galleria Vastagamma, Pordenone, Italy
2008 Illustrators Exhibition, Municipal Art Museum. Tokyo, Japan
2008 The Mix Up Spazio Limited, Milan, Italy
RESIDENCIES
2020 AIR- Artist in Residence, Kunstmeile, Krems an der Donau, Austria
2019 Default 19, LaStation, Gagliano Del Capo, Italy
2018 Threads, Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury, United Kingdom
2017 Artist in Residence, Centre for Recent Drawing, London, United Kingdom
SELECTED ARTISTIC RESEARCH PROJECTS
2015 De Earde. In “Helicotrema”, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy
2013 Tenebra È la Notte. In “Milano e Oltre”. Milan Triennale, Milan, Italy
2013 Here Ain’t Bodies. In “This is the End”. Errant Bodies, Berlin, Germany
CURATORIAL WORK
2011-2016 Founder and curator for El Cocuy
2014 Traveling Light (Group Show with K. Nakahara, F. Richardson, E. McNally, T. Müller, C. Heath ) C4RD, London, United Kingdom
2014 Window. Drawing for the Silent Room and Station Noise (Solo Performance by G. Wlodarczak) C4RD, London, United Kingdom
ARTISTIC AWARDS
2015 (Finalist) INDA 10 – International Drawing Annual, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
2009 (Selected) 92ma Collettiva Giovani Artisti, Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice, Italy
ACADEMIC AWARDS
2019 Warburg Library Travel Grant, Warburg Institute, London, United Kingdom
2012 Settimana di Alti Studi, ISR, Ferrara, Italy
EDITORIAL WORK
2018-Present Founder and chief editor of Anima Loci
2020-Present Co-editor at Drawing Tube
SEMINARS AND LECTURES
2023 Anima Loci
in “Paisagem que Fala”
Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Belas Artes, Portugal
2022 Concrete Shores
in “Talking Place”
Machester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
2021 Anima Loci
in “Margins and Forgotten Places”
University of Verona, Italy
2019 Drawing and memory. A space for a minimal battlefield.
Faculdade de Belas Artes, Porto, Portugal
2016 Living without architecture. Italy’s alternative models for life on earth.
In “Artists’ Critical Interventions into Architecture and Urbanism”.
Warwick University, Coventry, United Kingdom
2016 The reappropriation of the city. Bibliothèque Kandinsky.
In “Bricolage et contre-cultures à l’ère de la reproductibilité technique 1950-1970”.
Bibliothèque Kandinsky’s Université d’été, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
2016 Printed mnemotechniques of the New World.
In “Placing Prints. New developments in the study of print”.
Courtauld Institute of Art, London, United Kingdom
2015 From text to pictography through the arts of memory.
In “Traduire les mondes. Enjeux anthropologiques de la traduction.” Journée d’études “Traduction, image, action rituelle”
Musee du Quay Branly, Salle 3, Paris, France
2013 (Artist Talkand workshop) Nuovi bestiari.
ARVIMA, Arti Visive Marabelli; Pavia, Italy
2012 Pictography, iconography and arts of memory in Diego Valades.
In “The Many Renaissances of Any Warburg”.
Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara, Italy
2011 Messico coloniale: Una mnemotecnica per immagini
In “Linguaggi e politica: Il potere delle espressioni e le espressioni del potere nelle epoche di passaggio”
Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy
CONFERENCE CHAIR
2015 (Panel chair) Sonic warfare: In Conversation with Steve Goodman
Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice, Italy
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CONTACT
write.to.tommaso [@] gmail.com