Artists

Giovanni Balderi is THE MARBLE ARTIST inside Frilli Gallery, the one artist that deeply reconnects Frilli Gallery with its original identity of marble studio and laboratory.

Born in Seravezza, a charming town on the slopes the Apuan Alps, where the white Carrara marble quarries are located, for Giovanni the gigantic dazzling white blocks have always been part of his cultural and physical heritage.

Giovanni studied sculpture in Pietrasanta - Tuscany, where he graduated from the Istituto Statale d’Arte, the Academy of Fine Arts, earning two scholarships.

He knew that in order to become a great Master, one had to be taught by great Masters; therefore, he worked hard and payed his dues in illustrious studios, where he slowly started to discover his own style.

He himself later became a Master, and travelled to Brisbane, Australia and Alabama in the U.S., to teach students how to gently caress a marble block and how to firmly remove the excess with the chisel.

To take an illustrious quote from Michelangelo's own biography, according to Giovanni Balderi, every block contains a soul, every block owns it, imprisons it, ultimately sets it free.

Giovanni Balderi's sinouous and subtle figures are the modern representation of elegant and sensual classic venus bodies, interpreted in a minimalistic, yet extremely contemporary essence.

When watching the soft curves balanced with the drastic lines of Giovanni's sculptures, you can perceive his caresses, his touches, his chisel shots while carving it.

At the same time you can feel the new impetus of life Giovanni has given to his figures; they seem to be dancing and floating in the aerial space surrounding.

At the same time these gigantic blocks are standing fierce and strong, in front of us, confirming the irrepressible and powerful force of this noble and eternal material.

Giovanni Balderi is like a poet in art,; his phrases and emotions are sculpted deep inside the marble, transforming his verses in delicate roses of which you can almost perceive the frgrance or elongated women figures of which you can still recall the ancient classic traits.