Francesco Vezzoli

Francesco Vezzoli (born 1971 in Brescia, Italy) is an Italian artist and filmmaker based in Milan.

Vezzoli studied at the Central Saint Martins School of Art in London from 1992 to 1995. In his early works from 1994 to 1996, he reenvisioned twentieth-century masterpieces by Mark Rothko and Josef Albers as modest-sized hand stitched petit point embroideries. Upon his return to Italy, Vezzoli created his first series of films entitled An Embroidered Trilogy (1997–99).

2000 Vezzoli shot the short film The Kiss (Let's play Dynasty) with Helmut Berger. In 2002 his films were the subject of a one-man exhibition at the New Museum in New York City curated by Dan Cameron. The film Non-Love Meetings (2004) from the series Trilogy of Death (2004) presents a game show in which contestants display their talents in hopes of winning the love of such celebrities as actress Catherine Deneuve. His Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula (2005), featuring Courtney Love as the title character, along with Helen Mirren, Benicio del Toro, Milla Jovovich and Vidal himself, was his entry at the 2005 Venice Biennale, when he and Giuseppe Penone represented Italy. The film was also screened as part of the 2006 Whitney Biennial.

In 2007 Vezzoli was again included in the Venice Biennale in the Italian pavilion with his video piece DEMOCRAZY starring Sharon Stone and the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy as a pair of U.S presidential candidates. That same year, he staged Luigi Pirandello's Right You Are (If You Think You Are) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, starring Abigail Breslin, Cate Blanchett and Dianne Wiest. On November 14, 2009 Vezzoli organised a performance where Lady Gaga performed her song Speechless on a pink Steinway & Sons piano decorated with painted-on butterflies while ballet dancers from the Bolshoi Theatre, danced alongside.

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