Ferruccio Gard is one of the leading representatives of neo-constructivist art, Programmed Art and Optical Art, which he has practiced since 1969, and was one of the first in Italy to do so.
In total has participated in seven Venice Biennale of Art (1982, 1986, 1995, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2017), to the 11th National Rome Quadriennale (1986) and to several exhibitions on kinetic and optical art, including at the National Gallery of Modern Art of Prague (2008), at the GNAM, National Gallery of Modern Art of Rome (2012), and, on Kinetic Art in the 70s in Italy, at the MACBA, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires, and at the MACLA, the Latin American Museum of Contemporary Art of La Plata (Argentina), both in 2014.
In 2016 the invitation to the 15. International Biennale of Architecture in Venice, directed by Chilean Alejandro Aravena, winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Nobel of architecture, in ” Without Land / Lackland ” project in the San Servolo Foundation, island of San Servolo.
Of extreme importance is the exhibition held at Ca’ Pesaro, the International Gallery of Modern Art, in Venice, dedicated to him by the Civic Museums Foundation and curated by Gabriella Belli (16 October-10 December 2015), in the context of a dialogue between a master of contemporary art in Venice and the 56th Venice Biennale of Art, and set up within the permanent collection, along side masterpieces of renown masters of modern art worldwide such as Klimt, Chagall, Munch, Rodin, Martini, Medardo Rosso, Mirò, Calder, Arp, Boccioni, De Chirico and other famous master of modern art of world.
In 2011, Gard was one of the artists invited to officially represent Italy at the Italian National Pavilion (Venice Arsenal, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi) in the 54th International Venice Biennale.
In addition to exhibiting in the Italian National Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, Gard also participated in the collateral Event “Cracked Culture? The Quest for Identity in Contemporary Chinese Art”, which compared the work of 13 notable exponents of new Chinese Art with that of two Venetian artists (curated by the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou).
Another important recognition was the invitation to exhibit his work in “ABSTRACT: Abstract secessions from post-World War II to 1990”, the most important exhibition on Italian Abstract Art of that time, curated by Giorgio Cortenova and Filiberto Menna (Verona: Palazzo Forti, Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art; Milan: Palazzo della Permanente; Darmstadt and Frankfurt (Germany): Kunsthalle and Buchmesse).
Gard has had more than 150 solo exhibitions around the world, in such cities as Beijing, New York, Prague, Brussels, Salzburg and Lienz (Osterreich), Remagen and Saarlouis (Germany), Cordoba (Argentina), Panama City, Venice, Rome, Florence, Milan, Aosta, Mantua, Ravenna, Verona, Padua, Turin, Bergamo, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Ivrea and Vicenza. Several of these exhibitions were held in “temples” of the Italian Renaissance, including House the Mantegna (Mantua), House the Giorgione (Castelfranco Veneto, Treviso) and Loggetta Lombardesca in Ravenna.
He is considered to be a master of colour anda leading figure in the movement, as is demonstrated by the many artists who are inspired by or even copy his work.
Gard’s art has been discussed by world famous critics, including Giuseppe Marchiori, who founded the historic “Fronte Nuovo delle Arti” in Venice in 1946, and Pierre Restany, who promoted Nouveau Realisme in Paris, as well as Giulio Carlo Argan, Umbro Apollonio, Filiberto Menna and Achille Bonito Oliva, GM Accame, Luca Massimo Barbero, Renato Barilli, Luca Beatrice, Gabriella Belli, Beatrice Buscaroli, Massimo Cacciari, Luciano Caramel, Vittorio Sgarbi, Claudio Cerritelli, Giorgio Cortenova, Bruno D’Amore, Floriano De Santi, Giovanni Granzotto, Giorgio Di Genova, Guido Perocco, Toni Toniato, Tommaso Trini and Virginia Baradel, Riccardo Barletta, Anna Caterina Bellati, Boris Brollo, Donatella Cannova, Elisabetta Castellari, Enzo Di Martino, Sebastiano Grasso, Emma Gravagnuolo, Paolo Levi, Luigi Meneghelli, Paolo Rizzi, Richard Rognet, Roberto Sanesi, Giorgio Segato, Enrico Tantucci, Marisa Vescovo and Alberto Veca.
In addition, his workhas been written about by famous artists, including Piero Dorazio and Virgilio Guidi, as well as renowned poets and writers, such as Jorge Amado, Andrea Zanzotto and Paolo Ruffilli.
The first national artistic recognition that Gard received in Italy was in 1974, when he was invited to participate in the 12th National Quadriennale of the Society to Promote Fine Art in Turin. At the time, this was the most important Italian art event after the Venice Biennale and the National Rome Quadriennale.
For thirty years (1978-2008) collaborated with solo and group exhibitions, the Art Group neo constructivist, kinetic and programmed ” Verifica 8 + 1 “, founded in Venice-Mestre by painter Sara Campesan and inaugurated in 1978 with a solo exhibition by Bruno Munari.
His works are found in important public and private collections, includingthe Ca’ Pesaro Museum of Modern Art in Venice and the Satoru Sato Museum in Japan.
His work has been the subject of several
dissertations at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice.
Originating of Valle d’Aosta, Gard was born in 1940 in Vestignè (Turin).
He has lived and worked in Venice since 1973.