Elisa Sighicelli

Turin, Italy, 1968
Lives and works in Turin

Elisa Sighicelli, an artist born in Turin, Italy, is widely recognized for her artistic practice developed over nearly three decades. Her studies began in Textile Design in Florence and were later consolidated in London, where she graduated in Sculpture from Kingston University and obtained a master’s degree from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, in 1997. Sighicelli’s practice is characterized by a keen interest in the act of seeing, marked by her interaction with exhibition spaces and the transformation of ordinary elements into central themes in her works. Through subtle transitions between reality and imagination, her approach reveals a profound dialogue with context and materiality.

Elisa Sighicelli’s works are primarily constructed through photography, video, and painting, using carefully selected materials to establish sensory and conceptual connections. Her aesthetic is distinguished by the innovative use of light, often applied to partially backlit photographs, which adds depth and ambiguity to her creations. By dissolving the boundaries between the artwork and its environment, her spatial interventions offer audiences transformative experiences, challenging traditional exhibition conventions and exploring the relationship between form, content, and perception.

Turin, Italy, 1968.
Lives and works in Turin

EDUCATION

BA in Sculpture – Kingston University, London, United Kingdom

1997

MA in Sculpture – The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, United Kingdom

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025

Vitroepifanie, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy

2024

Ruptura da Trama, Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo, Brazil

2023

Petits Rats, Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong

2022

As Above, So Below, GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan, Italy

2020

Carla Accardi and Elisa Sighicelli, 55 Walker Street, a collaborative space of Bortolami, kaufmann repetto, and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, United States

Stone Talk, Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong

2019

Lumenombra, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Turin, Italy

Storie di Pietrofori e Rasomanti, Museo Pignatelli, Naples, Italy

2018

Come d’acqua, Libreria delle donne, Milan, Italy

2017

Doppio sogno, Palazzo Madama – Museo Civico d’Arte Antica, Turin, Italy

2016

Elisa Sighicelli, Mars, Milan, Italy

2015

Elisa Sighicelli, Sala d’aspetto, Milan, Italy

2014

Elisa Sighicelli, MOT International, London, United Kingdom

2013

Elisa Sighicelli, Gagosian, Geneve, Switzerland

2012

Returning the Gaze, Un Po d’arte, Turin, Italy

2011

Elisa Sighicelli, Artist Videos 2005-2010, screening, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

Masso erratico, Eco e Narciso, screening at GAM – Galleria Civica D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2010

The Party is Over, Gagosian, New York, United States

Imaginary Time, Meteorite in Giardino 3, Fondazione Merz at the Planetarium, Turin, Italy

2009

Always the Sun, Ospedale Regina Margherita, in collaboration with Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy

Elisa Sighicelli, Seomi & Tuus Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2008

Elisa Sighicelli, Flinders University City Gallery, Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts, Adelaide, Australia

2007

Elisa Sighicelli, GAM – Galleria Civica D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2006

The River Suite, Gagosian, London, United Kingdom

Phi, Gio Marconi, Milan, Italy

2005

Elisa Sighicelli, Cohan and Leslie, New York, United States

Sottovoce, Palazzo delle Papesse – Centro d’Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy

2004

Pitfall, Galerie Zurcher, Paris; Narodni Muzeum, Prague, Czechia

2003

Elisa Sighicelli, Gagosian, London, United Kingdom

Elisa Sighicelli, Fondation Salomon, Annecy, France

2002

Elisa Sighicelli, Cohan Leslie & Browne, New York, United States

2001

Frost, Gagosian, Los Angeles, United States

Frost, Gio Marconi, Milan, Italy

2000

Santiago, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela; Centro de Fotografia, Universidad de Salamanca; Laure Genillard Gallery, London

Nuits d’hotel, Galerie Zurcher, Paris; L’Espal Centre Culturel, Le Mans; Theatre Granit, Belfort, France

1999

Never Never Land, Galleria Carbone, Turin, Italy

Restheaven, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Not at Home, Gio Marconi, Milan, Italy

1998

Without world, Laure Genillard Gallery, London, United Kingdom

1996

Arrache-coeur, Galleria Carbone, Turin, Italy

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

Beyond These Walls, AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2024

Inside, Fondazione Giorgio Griffa, Turin, Italy

Chez Paint it Black: un ristorante temporaneo immaginato da artisti, Paint it Black, Turin, Italy

Check Mate(s) Oscar Murillo, organized by Kurimanzutto, Casa SP-Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil

June 21, Bortolami, New York, United States

Expanded With, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

Narrative Obsession in the Post-Colonial Psyche, The 8th Floor, The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, United States

In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection, Brooklyn Museum, New York, United States

Italia 70 – I Nuovi Mostri, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy

2023

Sensing Painting: Works from the art collection of the Fondazione CRC, Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, Italy

Museo d’arte contemporanea, Turin, Italy

Costruire nuove identita, Festival del Paesaggio, Capri, Italy

2022

Spettri: palinsesti della memoria, Madre, Naples, Italy

Afterimage, MAXXI L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

Ri-connessioni. Natura e ambiente dall’800 al contemporaneo, Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania, Italy

Joy, Joy, Joy On the Pepperside of Suprainfinit, Wonnerth Dejaco, Vienna, Austria

2021

In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection, LACMA, Los Angeles, United States

Facts of Light, Cathouse Proper, New York, United States

Painting in Person. The new collection of the Fondazione CRC, Complesso Monumentale San Francesco, Cuneo, Italy

Una infinita bellezza. Paesaggio e ambiente in Italia dalla pittura romantica all’arte contemporanea, Reggia di Venaria Reale, Venaria, Italy

MIRABILIA, Casa Italia, Tokyo Olympics, Tokyo, Japan

Arte e Natura, Museo Carlo Bilotti, Roma, Italy

2020

The Looking Glass and Behind it, MISP – Museum of 20th-21st Century Art, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Viaggi da camera, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy

2019

Futuruins, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy

Casa come me, Festival del Paesaggio, Capri, Italy

2018

100% Italia. Cent’anni di capolavori, MEF – Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy

Postcards, Festival del Paesaggio, Capri, Italy

The Summer Show, Renata Fabbri arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy

The Milky Way, Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy

Work in progress, La collezione di San Patrignano, La Triennale di Milano; MAXXI, Roma, Italy

Museo Riso, Palermo, Italy

2017

Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy

Who’s Still Working on this Masterpiece?, The Loft, Brussels, Belgium

2015

Zoom. Fotografia italiana, Fondazione Remotti, Camogli, Italy

Book for Architects, ETH – Institut fur Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur, Zurich, Switzerland

So Much More than the Sum of its Tropes, Norma Mangione, Turin, Italy

2014

De Rerum Natura, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy

2013

Wunderkammer. Arte, Natura, Meraviglia ieri e oggi, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy

Hannah Gieseler, Monika Goetz, Johanna Jaeger, Elisa Sighicelli, Schwarz Contemporary, Berlin, Germany

Autoritratti. Iscrizioni al Femminile nell’Arte Contemporanea Italiana, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

2012

Marking Time, MCA – Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia

Set Up, Jousse Entreprise, Paris, France

Punti di vista. Identita conflitti mutamenti, Galleria Nazionale, Cosenza, Italy

Silences Where Things Abandon Themselves, MSU – Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia

2011

Ceci n’est pas du Cinema, Castello di Rivoli with Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Turin, Italy

Alive She Cried, Galerie Zink, Berlin, Germany

Ecstatic, Vivid, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Lo sguardo persistente, GAM – Galleria Civica D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2010

VideoREPORT ITALIA: 08_09, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

XVII Rohkunstbau. Atlantis II Hidden Histories Imagined Identities, Schloss Marquardt, Potsdam, Germany

Urban Origami, PM Gallery & House, London, United Kingdom

Entre glace et neige, Centre Saint-Benin, Aosta, Italy

Cosa fa la mia anima mentre sto lavorando?, MAGA – Museo d’Arte Gallarate, Gallarate, Italy

2009

Collaudi, Padiglione Italia, 53a Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, La Biennale di Venice, Venice, Italy

Il cielo in una stanza, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte, Monfalcone, Italy

Baker’s Dozen Cafe, Gallery Project, London, United Kingdom

Art Video Lounge: Video Arte Italiana in Pescheria, Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Pesaro, Italy

Laure Genillard Gallery in Rome: Another Air, Alessandra Bonomo, Roma, Italy

Index 2, C4 Bunker, Centro Cultura del Contemporaneo, Caldogno, Italy

2008

Women to Watch 2008, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., United States

Focus on Contemporary Italian Art, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

Mediterraneo 2008, Perna Foundation, Ravello, Italy

Video.it 9: L’oggetto del design nell’ambiente, Accademia Albertina, Turin, Italy

2007

Camera con vista. Arte e interni in Italia 1900-2000, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy

Isobar, Fieldgate Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Apocalittici e integrati, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy

Poi piovve dentro a l’alta fantasia, Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy

Albedo: A New Perspective in Italian Moving Images, XII International Media Art Biennale WRO 07, Wroclaw, Poland

Teatro Junghans, Venice, Italy

GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

Italy 1980 – 2007, Vietnam Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi, Vietnam

Le luci dell’arte: cinque artisti illuminano la Roma sotterranea, Case Romane San Paolo alla Regola, Rome, Italy

2006

Young Italian Artists at the Turn of the Millenium, Galleria Continua, Beijing, China

New Landscapes Italian Art Photography, HVB Kunst Palais, Munich, Germany

Destino Santiago, Instituto Cervantes, Sofia, Bulgaria

VideoREPORT ITALIA: 04_05, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

2005

Barrocos y Neobarrocos, DA2 – Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, Spain

BYO: Bring your Own, MAN – Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy

Guardami, percezione del video, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy

Aperto per lavori in corso, PAC – Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

Italian Camera, Isola di San Servolo, Venice, Italy

No Code, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia

La miniatura dal settecento al video d’artista, Arte al Castello, Fondazione Torino Musei, Turin, Italy

Agony and the Ecstacy, FACT – Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool, United Kingdom

The Mind is a Horse Part 2, Bloomberg Space, London, United Kingdom

XIV Quadriennale d’arte, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy

2004

De leur temps, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing, France

Expo 21: Strategies of Display, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham; Mead Gallery, Warwick Art Centre, Coventry, United Kingdom

2003

Montagna. Arte, scienza, mito, Mart – Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy

Liquid Sea, MCA – Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia

Imago, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

Up Close and Personal, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Le opere e i giorni, Certosa di San Lorenzo, Padula, Italy

Void, Yokohama Portside Gallery, Yokohama, Japan

Faiseurs d’histoires, Galerie du Theatre National de Bretagne, Rennes, France

Secrets in the Light of Day, Galeria Andre Viana, Porto, Portugal

2002

De Gustibus, Palazzo delle Papesse – Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy

2001

No World Without You, Reflections of Identity in New British Art, The Hertzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel

La GAM costruisce il suo futuro, GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

Wattage and Friendship, Mullerdechiara, Berlin, Germany

Tell it as it is, Diehl Vorderwuelbecke, Berlin, Germany

2000

Out of Place, The Lowry, Manchester, United Kingdom

Residual Property, Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Futurama, Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy

Images: Italian Art from 1942 to the Present, European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany

Le pratiche della percezione, Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea, Trento, Italy

Is There Anyone Home?, Gallery Westland Place, London, United Kingdom

1999

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy

XIII Quadriennale d’arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy

Word Enough to Save a Life, Word Enough to Take a Life, Dilston Grove, London, United Kingdom

Privacy, Project United, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland

1998

Close to Home, U.F.F. Galeria, Budapest, Hungary

Instruments of Deceit, Gasworks, London, United Kingdom

Sightings: New Photographic Art, ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom

Winter Sale, Trade Apartment, London, United Kingdom

1997

VIII Biennale dei Giovani Artisti dell’Europa e del Mediterraneo, Turin, Italy

Proposte XII: Ghosts of Reality, Galleria di San Filippo, Turin, Italy

Italians, 30 Underwood St, London, United Kingdom

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