About the Artist
GianPiero Franchi is a Scottish Italian sculptor who has recently moved to London to expand his opportunities to collaborate.
Studied at Gray’s School of Art in a revolutionary new course where the creation of Contemporary art practice as a singular art form was invented. He was influenced by the generation where all established mediums were combined into one. Over the years he has built up the professional skill set to be able to present ideas in multiple mediums with high quality.
Crossing the world chasing skills has become a defining feature of this artist. From moving to Italy to master the casting process at the best foundry in the world. To then adventuring across the Atlantic to Barbados to pursue a stone that no one had ever used before.
The Coral Stone project is a prime example of this work taking an otherwise unused material and creating art from the disregarded.
Since being in London GianPiero has achieved advanced metal, wood and stone fabrication in some of Londons prestigious and renowned locations. Exposed to the best tools, materials and techniques puts him on the cutting edge of making.
Always looking for the next big thing this artist’s approach is always exciting and one to watch for the future, his best is yet to come.
Education
First class honours undergraduate degree in Contemporary Art Practice (Sculpture) , Gray's School of Art, RGU, Aberdeen, 2016
Attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague during an Erasmus semester, 2014.
Master of Letters degree in sculpture (with merit) from Glasgow School of Art, graduating 2019.
Exhibitions Examples
Coral Stone, March 2022@ PaulOwens at the beach house, Barbados
All Work and All Play , 27June -20 July 2019@Air Gallery, Manchester
GSA Masters Degree Show, 1-12 September2018@ Trongate, Glasgow
Limp Structures, 1-4 May 2018 @Transmission Gallery
Langs Craigs Exhibition, 23-25 Feb 2018@ Langs Craigs Dumbarton
The Objective is Objectus, 10 September2017@Botanic Gardens
Prizes
Professional member of the Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop 2017
Kym Needle Prize for Sculpture @The Edinburgh Academy 2010
Fred Bushe Memorial Prize @Gray's School of Art 2014
Selected Emerging Artist @Gray's School of Art 2014
Kym Needle Prize for Sculpture @Gray's School of Art 2014
Residencies
Scottish graduate residency@Scottish Sculpture Workshop- October 2016
Pietrasanta residency @Fonderia Mariani, Pietrasanta, Jan-April 2017
Pietrasanta residency @ Studio Stagetti, Pietrasanta, Jan-April 2017
Hacking Europe @Brussels, Belgium, April 2018
Coral Stone Residency@ Clifton Hall Great house, Barbados, 2020- 2022
Artist Statement
Art to me is a balance of unanswerable questions and pointless fun, from it's origins on the walls of a cave to what ever the fuck it is now, I make sculpture because it excites me ! Using different materials to tell the world what I think and feel, with my philosophies, ideas and dreams. A way to record our generations short time on this wonderful planet.
" You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation, ” Plato. “play” in the majority of adults is as extinct as the white rhinoceros. The value of “fun” is slowly leaving our society. I investigate interaction as a way of breaking how boring art can be. “this is an art work don't touch it” and make sculptures that make you feel something real. I encourage the viewers to interact, engage and respond physically to the work, and through their actions invoke others. Fellow Artist Ralph Roosen said " maybe that is the metaphor, we do all these pointless tasks in life but what’s the point,”I think he has summarised well my phipliosioys and views on art and life. Its like making a pancake if you don't flip it whats the point.
The coral stone exhibition is a great example of how my education has effected how I work. I switch mediums regularly with subject matter, in this case starting from a drawing on paper to developing screen prints and to then immortalise these drawings into stone. Its a way of working that has no limits and I like to push my capabilities with the artworks I make. I moved to London to learn how to take my sculptures to a bigger scale , working for a fabrication company called webber industries I honed my skills and learned in general how to take the quality of what i am able to produce to a new level.
GianPiero Franchi