CURRENT OFFERING: GIOVANNI LEONARDO BASSAN

Release 25/09/2026

Giovanni Leonardo Bassan (b. 1989, Marostica, Vicenza, Italy) is a multidisciplinary Italian artist. He began his artistic education at the Art School A. Martini in Schio before graduating in Industrial Design from the Politecnico di Milano in 2011. A committed world traveler, Bassan has participated in numerous international and humanitarian projects that have shaped both his perspective and practice.

An early mentor, Michèle Lamy — the renowned French fashion icon and longtime muse to designer Rick Owens — provided Bassan with his first studio in Paris. This formative gesture anchored his artistic development in the city where he continues to live and work. Alongside his artistic practice, he oversees Rick Owens' furniture line, positioning him within a collector base already accustomed to high entry points.

Bassan constructs his compositions through repetition, erasure, and layering, exploring identity at its points of rupture and transformation. The canvas becomes a field of tension where images accumulate, collide, and contradict one another. Blurring the boundaries between high and low culture, he brings a distinctly European sensibility rooted in classical and historical painting to the gestural force of contemporary figurative expressionism. His practice develops an "abstract" vision built from overlapping figurative layers, where image and narrative fragment, dissolve, and reassemble.

Drawing on close observation of everyday life, Bassan depicts the heterotopias of Paris — spaces that exist outside conventional norms. Immersed in the city's shifting alternative festive scene, he operates simultaneously as a voyeur, a portraitist, and a participant. His compositions evoke fragmented history paintings — tilted, cut, or structurally disrupted — challenging linear interpretation and stable meaning.

Today, his practice extends beyond painting to include sculpture, ceramics, and furniture design. Across mediums, he seeks to reconcile alternative techniques with traditional forms, continually exploring new visual and material possibilities. Characterized by raw, emotional intensity, his work invites reflection on identity, space, and collective memory.

His work has been exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions.

Selected Exhibitions: 

·   2026 & Upcoming

“What Next”, Museum exhibition curated by M&A Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland – Group Show, (UPCOMING -

March-May, 2027)

“Kazdoura”, Charity Exhibition at Forma, Paris, France – Group Show

“26th And 10th “, Billy Clark and Polimeno, New York, USA – Group Show

“Art Paris”, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France – Art Fair

·   2025

“Mélange”, co-curated by art dealer and Ward Gallery, Paris, France – Group Show

“Empreintes: Du Geste au Langage”, Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France – Group Show

“Non c’è Rosa Senza Spine”, LOY Contemporary Art Gallery, Singapore – Solo Show  

·   2024

“I Will Give It to Someone Special”, Sans Titre gallery, Paris, France – Group Show

“Body Symphonies”, curated by Marion Guggenheim and Nicolas Dewavrin, Paris, France –  Group Show

“Treehouse”, Lindon Gallery, London, UK – Group Show

“Private Rooms”, Sainte Anne Gallery, Paris, France – Solo Show

·   2023

“The Imaginary Museum”, Galerie Bertrand Grimont, Paris, France – Group Show

“DAWA, 35/37”, curated by Latif Samassi, Paris, France – Group Show

“Metonymia”, Serene Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland – Solo Show

·   2022

“I Sing the Body Electric”, Dune Alpine, East Hampton, USA – Group Show

“The Last Days of Disco”, Fragment Gallery, New York, USA – Group Show

“Sweet Lust”, White Cube, Paris, France – Group Show

“Vessel”, Sized Studio, Los Angeles, USA – Group Show

·   2021

“Forest of Hands”, special collaboration with Comme des Garçons, Paris, France – Solo Show

“Dazed Korea”, Art Fair, Seoul, South Korea –  Group Show

·   2020

“Affinità Elettive (Chemical Affinities)”, Samuele Visentin gallery, Turin, Italy – Group Show

“It’s Lebanon’s Anarchy That Bothers You”, Galerie Charraudeau, Paris, France – Group Show

·   2019

“Art Basel Miami”, Miami, USA – Art Fair

“Deluge”, The Mine gallery, Paris, France – Solo Show

“Dysfunctional (What Are You Fighting For)”, Venice Biennale, Ca’ d’Oro Museum, Italy – Group Show

·   2018

“What Are You Fighting For”, curated by Michèle Lamy, London, UK – Group Show

·   2016

“Frattelanza (SMUG), Kunstafabrik, Berlin, Germany – Group Show

“Everything Distracts Me”, The Mine gallery, Paris, France – Solo Show

·   2015

“Martyrdom”, The Mine gallery, Dubai, UAE – Solo Show