Federico Solmi

The Ballroom, 2016

Biography

Federico Solmi (Italy, 1973) currently lives and works in New York. His exhibitions, which often combine articulate installations composed of different media such as video, drawings, and paintings, use bright colors and a satirical aesthetic to portray a dystopian vision of our present-day society. Solmi exploits emerging technologies to reveal the hypocrisies in contemporary society, making art with political and social commentary as a means to disrupt the power structure of our technological age. Scanning his paintings into a game engine, Solmi confronts the audience with his own absurd rewriting of past and present-day events. Solmi stages a virtual world where our leaders become puppets, animated by computer scripts rather than strings.

In the year 2009, Federico Solmi was awarded by the Guggenheim Foundation of New York with the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in the category of Video & Audio. Federico Solmi is currently visiting Professor at Yale University School of Drama, New Haven, CT. His work has been included in several international Biennials, including Open Spaces 2018: A Kansas City Arts Experience(2018), the Beijing Media Art Biennale (2016), Frankfurt B3 Biennial of the Moving Image (2017-2015), the First Shenzhen Animation Biennial in China (2013), the 54th Venice Biennial (2011), and the SITE Santa Fe Biennial in New Mexico (2010). Solmi has been featured in solo museum exhibitions including Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, NY (2018), Museo de Arte Contemporaneo del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela (2017), the Haifa Museum of Art, Israel (2016), the Centro Cultural Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (2015), and the Italian Cultural Institute of Madrid, Spain (2013).

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Artist Website

Exhibitions

Sep 2024 – Jan 2025 Group Show Focus Group

Mar 06 – Mar 09, 2019 Federico Solmi Counterfeit Heroes

Jun 11 – Aug 23, 2018 Group Show Reprise: Summer Show 2018

May 23 – Aug 17, 2017 Group Show Art on the Front Lines

See All Exhibitions

Federico Solmi

The Great Farce Carousel (excerpt)

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Federico Solmi

The Great Farce Carousel (excerpt)

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Federico Solmi

The Great Farce (excerpt)

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Federico Solmi

The Holy Master (excerpt)

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Federico Solmi

The Grand Masquerade, 2018

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Federico Solmi

The Kindhearted Charlatans, 2018

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Federico Solmi

The Great Expedition, 2018

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Federico Solmi

The Great Expedition, 2018

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Federico Solmi

The Esteemed Scoundrel, 2017

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Federico Solmi

The Divine Emperor, 2017

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Federico Solmi

The Gracious Conquistadors, 2017

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Federico Solmi

The Decadent, 2016

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The Magnificent Exploiter, 2016

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Federico Solmi

The Great Patriot, 2016

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Federico Solmi

The Brotherhood Triptych, Panel 2, 2015

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Federico Solmi

Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth video edition box, 2012

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Federico Solmi

Untitled still from Douche Bag City, 2010

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Federico Solmi

Untitled still from The Evil Empire, 2007

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Federico Solmi

Untitled Still from King Kong and the End of the World, 2006

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Federico Solmi

Untitled still from King Kong and the End of the World, 2006

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The Good Samaritans, 2018

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The Good Samaritans, 2018

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The Great Farce, 2017

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The Brotherhood, 2017

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The Ballroom, 2016

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The Brotherhood, 2015

installation view

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Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth, 2015

installation view

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Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth, 2015

installation view

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Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth, 2013

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Douche Bag City, 2010

installation view

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The Evil Empire, 2008

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King Kong and the End of the World, 2006

installation view

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Ideal City, 2004

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The Good Samaritans, 2018

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The Great Farce, 2017

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The Brotherhood, 2017

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The Ballroom, 2016

installation view

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The Brotherhood, 2015

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth, 2015

installation view

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Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth, 2015

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth, 2013

installation view

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Douche Bag City, 2010

installation view

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The Evil Empire, 2008

installation view

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King Kong and the End of the World, 2006

installation view

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Ideal City, 2004

installation view