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, São 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

2020 Stone Talk, Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong

2019 Lumenombra, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Turin, Italy

2019 Storie di Pietròfori 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, Genève, 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

2011 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

2010 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

2009 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

2006 Phi, Gió Marconi, Milan, Italy

2005 Elisa Sighicelli, Cohan and Leslie, New York, United States

2005 Sottovoce, Palazzo delle Papesse – Centro d’Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy

2004 Pitfall, Galerie Zürcher, Paris; Národní Muzeum, Prague, Czechia

2003 Elisa Sighicelli, Gagosian, London, United Kingdom

2003 Elisa Sighicelli, Fondation Salomon, Annecy, France

2002 Elisa Sighicelli, Cohan Leslie & Browne, New York, United States

2001 Frost, Gagosian, Los Angeles, United States

2001 Frost, Gió Marconi, Milan, Italy

2000 Santiago, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela; Centro de Fotografia, Universidad de Salamanca; Laure Genillard Gallery, London

2000 Nuits d’hôtel, Galerie Zürcher, Paris; L’Espal Centre Culturel, Le Mans; Théâtre Granit, Belfort, France

1999 Never Never Land, Galleria Carbone, Turin, Italy

1999 Restheaven, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, United Kingdom

1999 Not at Home, Gió 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

2024 Chez Paint it Black: un ristorante temporaneo immaginato da artisti, Paint it Black, Turin, Italy

2024 Check Mate(s) Oscar Murillo, organized by Kurimanzutto, Casa SP—Arte, São Paulo, Brazil

2024 June 21, Bortolami, New York, United States

2024 Expanded With, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2024 Narrative Obsession in the Post-Colonial Psyche, The 8th Floor, The Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, United States

2024 In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection, Brooklyn Museum, New York, United States

2024 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

2023 Museo d’arte contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2023 Costruire nuove identità, Festival del Paesaggio, Capri, Italy

2022 Spettri: palinsesti della memoria, Madre, Naples, Italy

2022 Afterimage, MAXXI L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

2022 Ri-connessioni. Natura e ambiente dall’800 al contemporaneo, Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania, Italy

2022 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

2021 Facts of Light, Cathouse Proper, New York, United States

2021 Painting in Person. The new collection of the Fondazione CRC, Complesso Monumentale San Francesco, Cuneo, Italy

2021 Una infinita bellezza. Paesaggio e ambiente in Italia dalla pittura romantica all’arte contemporanea, Reggia di Venaria Reale, Venaria, Italy

2021 MIRABILIA, Casa Italia, Tokyo Olympics, Tokyo, Japan

2021 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

2020 Viaggi da camera, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Italy

2019 Futuruins, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy

2019 Casa come me, Festival del Paesaggio, Capri, Italy

2018 100% Italia. Cent’anni di capolavori, MEF – Museo Ettore Fico, Turin, Italy

2018 Postcards, Festival del Paesaggio, Capri, Italy

2018 The Summer Show, Renata Fabbri arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy

2018 The Milky Way, Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy

2018 Work in progress, La collezione di San Patrignano, La Triennale di Milano; MAXXI, Roma, Italy

2018 Museo Riso, Palermo, Italy

2017 Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy

2017 Who’s Still Working on this Masterpiece?, The Loft, Brussels, Belgium

2015 Zoom. Fotografia italiana, Fondazione Remotti, Camogli, Italy

2015 Book for Architects, ETH – Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur, Zürich, Switzerland

2015 So Much More than the Sum of its Tropes, Norma Mangione, Turin, Italy

2014 De Rerum Natura, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy

2013 Wunderkammer. Arte, Natura, Meraviglia ieri e oggi, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy

2013 Hannah Gieseler, Monika Goetz, Johanna Jaeger, Elisa Sighicelli, Schwarz Contemporary, Berlin, Germany

2013 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

2012 Set Up, Jousse Entreprise, Paris, France

2012 Punti di vista. Identità conflitti mutamenti, Galleria Nazionale, Cosenza, Italy

2012 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

2011 Alive She Cried, Galerie Zink, Berlin, Germany

2011 Ecstatic, Vivid, Birmingham, United Kingdom

2011 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

2010 XVII Rohkunstbau. Atlantis II Hidden Histories Imagined Identities, Schloss Marquardt, Potsdam, Germany

2010 Urban Origami, PM Gallery & House, London, United Kingdom

2010 Entre glace et neige, Centre Saint-Bénin, Aosta, Italy

2010 Cosa fa la mia anima mentre sto lavorando?, MAGA – Museo d’Arte Gallarate, Gallarate, Italy

2009 Collaudi, Padiglione Italia, 53° Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte, La Biennale di Venice, Venice, Italy

2009 Il cielo in una stanza, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte, Monfalcone, Italy

2009 Baker’s Dozen Café, Gallery Project, London, United Kingdom

2009 Art Video Lounge: Video Arte Italiana in Pescheria, Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Pesaro, Italy

2009 Laure Genillard Gallery in Rome: Another Air, Alessandra Bonomo, Roma, Italy

2009 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

2008 Focus on Contemporary Italian Art, MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy

2008 Mediterraneo 2008, Perna Foundation, Ravello, Italy

2008 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

2007 Isobar, Fieldgate Gallery, London, United Kingdom

2007 Apocalittici e integrati, MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy

2007 Poi piovve dentro a l’alta fantasia, Museo Marino Marini, Florence, Italy

2007 Albedo: A New Perspective in Italian Moving Images, XII International Media Art Biennale WRO 07, Wrocław, Poland

2007 Teatro Junghans, Venice, Italy

2007 GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

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

2007 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

2006 New Landscapes Italian Art Photography, HVB Kunst Palais, Munich, Germany

2006 Destino Santiago, Instituto Cervantes, Sofia, Bulgaria

2006 VideoREPORT ITALIA: 04_05, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

2005 Barrocos y Neobarrocos, DA2 – Domus Artium 2002, Salamanca, Spain

2005 BYO: Bring your Own, MAN – Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Nuoro, Italy

2005 Guardami, percezione del video, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy

2005 Aperto per lavori in corso, PAC – Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy

2005 Italian Camera, Isola di San Servolo, Venice, Italy

2005 No Code, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia

2005 La miniatura dal settecento al video d’artista, Arte al Castello, Fondazione Torino Musei, Turin, Italy

2005 Agony and the Ecstacy, FACT – Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool, United Kingdom

2005 The Mind is a Horse Part 2, Bloomberg Space, London, United Kingdom

2005 XIV Quadriennale d’arte, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy

2004 De leur temps, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tourcoing, France

2004 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

2003 Liquid Sea, MCA – Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia

2003 Imago, GC.AC – Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy

2003 Up Close and Personal, Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham, United Kingdom

2003 Le opere e i giorni, Certosa di San Lorenzo, Padula, Italy

2003 Void, Yokohama Portside Gallery, Yokohama, Japan

2003 Faiseurs d’histoires, Galerie du Théâtre National de Bretagne, Rennes, France

2003 Secrets in the Light of Day, Galeria André 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

2001 La GAM costruisce il suo futuro, GAM – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2001 Wattage and Friendship, Mullerdechiara, Berlin, Germany

2001 Tell it as it is, Diehl Vorderwuelbecke, Berlin, Germany

2000 Out of Place, The Lowry, Manchester, United Kingdom

2000 Residual Property, Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

2000 Futurama, Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy

2000 Images: Italian Art from 1942 to the Present, European Central Bank, Frankfurt, Germany

2000 Le pratiche della percezione, Galleria Civica d’Arte Contemporanea, Trento, Italy

2000 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

1999 XIII Quadriennale d’arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy

1999 Word Enough to Save a Life, Word Enough to Take a Life, Dilston Grove, London, United Kingdom

1999 Privacy, Project United, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland

1998 Close to Home, U.F.F. Galeria, Budapest, Hungary

1998 Instruments of Deceit, Gasworks, London, United Kingdom

1998 Sightings: New Photographic Art, ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom

1998 Winter Sale, Trade Apartment, London, United Kingdom

1997 VIII Biennale dei Giovani Artisti dell’Europa e del Mediterraneo, Turin, Italy

1997 Proposte XII: Ghosts of Reality, Galleria di San Filippo, Turin, Italy

1997 Italians, 30 Underwood St, London, United Kingdom

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