Gilberto Zorio

Gilberto Zorio
Gilberto Zorio in the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent in 1980
Born	1944 Andorno Micca, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Known for	Visual Art,
Notable work	Scrittura bruciata (Burnt writing), Torcia (Torch), Tenda (Tent), Odio (Hate), Confine incandescente (Incandescent border), Rose-Blu-Rosa (Pink-Blue-Pink)
Movement	Arte Povera

Gilberto Zorio (born 1944) is an Italian artist associated with the Italian Arte Povera movement. Zorio's artwork shows his fascination with natural processes, alchemical transformation, and the release of energy. His sculptures, paintings, and performances are often read as metaphors for revolutionary human action, transformation, and creativity. He is known for his use of materials including: incandescent electric light tubes, steel, pitch, motifs, and processes through the use of evaporation and oxidation. He also creates precarious installations using fragile materials such as Stella di Bronzo and Acidi within his work.

Zorio studied at the Scuola di arte e di ceramica (School of Arts and Ceramics) and then the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin (1963-1970). Gilberto originally studied painting, but he soon moved on to sculpture and had his first solo show of three-dimensional works in 1967 at the Galleria Sperone, Turin. He continued to live there and teach after he graduated.

A lot of Zorio's early work tended toward that which the North American artist Robert Morris identified as a 'dedifferentiation' between the materials and forms of art in post minimalist sculptural practice. This led to Zorio presenting objects that asserted dynamic relationships with their materials and spatial or environmental context. This can be seen in Zorio's semi-cylinder of cobalt chloride which changed color in reaction to the spectator's presence.

Throughout his career, Zorio was influenced by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Piero Gilardi,and Mario Merz.

Zorio's early pieces done between 1966 and 1968 concretized energy processes. These works utilized the process of chemical reactions or simple physical actions (such as oxidation, evaporation, refining, or electric transmission). These early works are based on autonomous changes taking place within a given system, or on changes caused by outside intervention (e.g., by the viewer). These events and changes take place within the work occurring at a slow pace, turning the weight and impact of time and the relentless rhythm of nature into something tangible. Energy, both on the physical-chemical and emotional level, is common to all these processes. These concepts can be seen in pieces such as: Rosa-blu-rosa, Tenda, Piombi, Senza titolo, 1967 and Senza titolo, 1968.

Since his first exhibition at the Galleria Sperone in Turin in 1967, Gilberto Zorio's work has been linked to the history of Arte Povera. These first productions were strange objects, which were results of completed actions or ones that are still under way. Next came his work involving the action and reaction of the artist's body like in Odio ("hate" in Italian), a word inscribed with an ax in a wall. The role of words and speech is essential in these pieces.