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