Enrico Benaglia biography

Enrico Benaglia is an Italian painter, engraver, sculptor, and set designer. He was born in 1938 in Rome, where he attended Villa Medici, the seat of the French Academy in Rome, and the studios of artists belonging to the Roman School such as Pericle Fazzini, Giovanni Omiccioli, Franco Gentilini, and Luigi Montanarini.
In the 1960s, encouraged, among others, by artists such as Vittorio Guzzi and Giovanni Stradone, Enrico Benaglia exhibited for the first time at the Galleria La Vetrata di Roma his paintings rich in originality in both aesthetics and poetics.
Immediately after his debut, the artist comes into contact with various artistic and intellectual personalities such as Nanni Fabbri, Gabriella Sobrino, and Luciano Luisi and simultaneously begins an intense exhibition activity both in Italy and abroad.
In these years, the artist develops a great interest in lithography and engraving, techniques that will become a permanent part of his expressive mode.
In 1978, Enrico Benaglia began a parallel career as a set designer, staging for Rai the comedy "Lettere di Gozzano" by Lucio Piccolo. His work as a set designer continued throughout the 1980s, leading him in 1986 to create costumes and sets for the theatrical play "Diario" by Alice James and for "Piccioni" by Nanni Fabbri and Alida Maria Sessa.
During this period, the artist consolidates their aesthetic and artistic poetics, characterized by an original and symbolic iconography, linked to the world of fables and mythology. In '82, they exhibit in Rome their "Hommage à Rimbaud" and five years later "L’Etoile Filante" for the exhibition "Hommage à Granville".
In the nineties, Rossella Siligato presents her exhibition at the "FIAT Arte" space in Rome.
In 1997, finally, the Port Authority of Civitavecchia, together with the Municipality and the Regional Council of Lazio, organized an exhibition at the Michelangelo Fortress in the city, featuring a text by Rolando Alfonso titled "Trip to the Fort."
In 1998, the Abruzzo Region, the Superintendency, and the National Museum of Abruzzo dedicated the exhibition "The Enchanted Salon" to him at the Castle of L'Aquila, centered on medieval themes and presented by Sissi Aslan.
In May 2000, at the gallery L’Indicatore di Roma, the unpublished cycle of “The Quarters of the Soul” is presented, accompanied by a namesake anthology of poems curated by Gabriella Sobrino. The exhibition is presented by Alida Maria Sessa, who also curates its subsequent stages in New York, Pescara, Madrid, and finally Fondi.
The following year, the Municipality of Catania organizes an anthological exhibition that gathers the most representative works of the artist's production from 1977 to 2001.
In 2002, in collaboration with Alitalia, he exhibited the series "Giardino Segreto", curated by Duccio Trombadori and Alida Maria Sessa. Also with Alitalia, he exhibited the painting "Notte Italiana" at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, and a year later, in 2003, the series "Vita in Campagna" was exhibited at the airport in Brussels, Belgium.
In 2004, the victory of the painting award of the third edition "Città di Fondi" arrives.
In 2005 in Perugia at the Rocca Paolina, the collection "Sogni di Carta" was created, featuring unpublished works by the artist from the decade between '65 and '75. This was the period that Enrico Benaglia considered crucial for his own development.
In December 2007, an exhibition of completely unpublished oils and pastels by the master is inaugurated in Chieti, and a year later in Milan, with the addition of several sculptures.
In February 2011, an exhibition was inaugurated in Catania, at the Chamber of Commerce, titled "Splendor of the Mediterranean", which was later exported to Lugano, Switzerland.