ITA / ENG

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020
→LOST, Naviglio Martesana, Villa delle Rose, Naviglio Martesana, progetto di arte pubblica di Marco Arosio e Rossana Ciocca, Milano
→Spazio Amato, opera permanente, Oasi del WWF Lago di Burano, Capalbio, a cura di Hypermaremma, Courtesy Terre di Sacra
→Una boccata d’arte, Santuario di Montovolo, Grizzana Moranti, Emilia Romagna, Italia, Courtesy Fondazione Elpis in collaborazione con Galleria Continua

2019
Goldenrock, public landscape, gold leaf on rock, Rio Val Grande, Piemonte

2018
→Belvedere, Omaggio a Giulio Romano, Palazzo Ducale, Complesso Museale Mantova
→LOVED SPACE, a view not a window, by Rossana Ciocca, Via Donatello 7, Milan

2017
→ESSERE SPAZIO, by antonio Oriente and Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Naples, archaeological site of Sapri, permanet work

2016
→After the gold rush, by Marco Bazzini, Spazioborgogno Gallery, Milan

2015/2016
→Spazio Amato, by Angelandreina Rorro, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome

2015
→Le Jardin, Studio Geddes-Franchetti, Rome,
→In your eyes, Three Hills Manufacture Rodchelskaya Street 15, Moscow

2014
→Light, by studio Campbell-Rey, Bentley Elements, Art Basel Miami
→Landline, Brother’s, by Alessandro Buganza, Art Gallery, Lugano, Swisse,

2012
→Annottazioni e mancate risposte, (with Emanuele Becheri), by di Mauro Panzera, A+B Gallery, Brescia,
→Linee di costruzione, Nilufar Gallery, Palazzo Durini, Milan

2011
→Never Off, Galleria Spazioborgogno, Milan

2009
→Gate Now Open, N.O. Gallery, Milan

2008
→Dreams of a possibile City, installation site-specific, Fondazione Stelline, Milan

2005
→5500°k, Paolo Bonzano Artecontemporanea, Palazzo Taverna, Rome

2001
→Lucedoro, by di Paola Magni, complesso monumentale di San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome 2000
→Bella posta, Galleria Neon, Bologna

1999
→Abitare, Care/Of, Cusano Milanino, Milan

1998
→Dessin du Dessin, Vetrines du hall, Ecole de Beaux Art de Valanciennes

1997
→Città invisibile, by Bettina della Casa, Istituto d’arte Depero, Rovereto, Trento

1996
→Maesta dell’invisibile, by Bettina della Casa, Veragouth Arte Contemporanea, Lugano, Swisse

1994
→La ricchezza, by Sergio Risaliti, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan

1993
→Veritas splendor, Studio Bocchi, Rome

1992
→Largado, TAG Gallery, Udine
→Il trillo del diavolo, Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi, Milan

1991
→VLU, Chiesa di San Zenone, Brescia

1990
→Signori si chiude!, Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi, Milan

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020
→Compresenze, Note per una fenomenologia dell’apparizione, Giudecca Art District, A cura di Pierpaolo Scelsi e Valentina Gioia Levy

2019
→Biennolo, Milan Art  Biennal, by ArtCityLab, Matteo Bergamini and Carlo Vanoni, Milan
→Segni di luce, Il disegno come progetto, text by sara Liuzzi, CRAC Puglia, Taranto
Experiri, l’ Arte racconta il cammino, Università Cattolica, Milan
Icone Italiane, tra Miti e meraviglie, By Cidneon, Brescia Castle, Brescia

2018
Da uno a dieci, Massimo Minini Gallery, Brescia
→Prospectum, Casa Italia, winter Olympics, Pyeongchang, South Korea
→On longing and consolation, Kunstenfestival, Watou, Belgium
→A cavallo di un raggio di luce, by Alessandro Demma, Parco d’Arte Quarelli, Roccaverano, Asti
→”ANY COLOR YOU LIKE, AS LONG AS IT’ S WHITE”, Spazio 22 Gallery, Milan

2017/ 2018
→NLF by light art collection Amsterdam, Norrkòping, Sweden

2017
→Look now, by Daan Rau, Palazzo Vendramin Costa, Venice
Andar x porte, by ArtCityLab, Palazzo Archinto, Milan
→WunnderMoRE, by MoRe Museum, Maxxi Museum, Rome

– 8208 LDF, by Lorenzo Guzzini Como

2016/ 2017
→Bunyan, Islamic Art Festival, by Sharjah Art Museum, UA Emirates

2016
Fondo Oro, galleria Disegno, Mantova. LIGHTWAVES, by Quays Culture, Manchester, UK. Anni 80/90: oggetti, processi, relazioni: l’incantesimo del quotidiano, by Alberto Dambruoso and Helga Marsala, Temple Gallery, Rome. BOOKART beyond reading, by  Irene Moret, Sara Floris e Bruno De Blasio, Galleria Della Provincia, Pordenone

2015
Ennesima, Una mostra di sette mostre sull’arte italiana, by  Vincenzo de Bellis and Cristina Baldacci, La Triennale di Milano
Today I Love You, Amsterdam Light Festival
Interactions, by Maroje Mrduljaš and Anthony Sevšek, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
→Way Out, by Paolo Giordano, Spazioborgogno, Milan
More Spaces, by Elisabetta Modena, Marco Scotti, Valentina Rossi e Anna Zinelli, Palazzo Pignorini, Parma
Frammenti di immaginario-esperimenti di riuso urbano, by MEME Exchenge, Casa degli Artisti, MuTA, Ravenna

2014
Entre deux chaises, un livre, by Diane Hennebert and Christophe Dosogne, Foundation Boghossian Villa Empain, Brussels
Bag, IV edizione, Università Bocconi University Milann, Con-temporary, YMC, by Paola Magni, Principality of Monaco
→030.2.0 Arte da Brescia, by Dario Bonetta and Fabio Paris, Castello di Brescia

2013
Neon, la materia luminosa dell’arte, by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and David Rosemberg, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome
NOPX Artbook – Limeted editions, Turin

2012
Altra natura, by Stefano Pezzato, Museo Pecci Milan

2011
Giorni felici, by Davide Dall’Ombra, Casa Tesori, Milan
A mina a mano amata, by Giuseppe Pietroniro, Studio Geddes-Franchetti, Rome

2010
Vette, a cura di Ilaria Bignotti, Palazzo Frisaccio, Tolmezzo, Udine

2008
Inscape Landscape, N.O. Gallery, Milan
Incipit, by Ludovico Pratesi, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome
M.A.P., N.O. Gallery, Milan
La forma configge con il tempo, by Mauro Panzera, Galleria Maria Grazie del Prete, Rome

2007
Ma come mai, by Cecilia Canziani, Paolo Bonzano Gallery, Rome

2006
Intangibile Routes, by Virginia Pérez-Ratton and Tamara Diaz, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporaneo, San Jose, Costa Rica
Esercizio#1, Neon Gallery, Bologna
Mutiplo 4, N.O. Gallery, Milan

2005
Filoluce, by Rachele Ferrario, Museo della Permanente, Milan
Entr’acte 2, Arte contemporanea in casa Gallizio, Alba, Cuneo
Multiplo 3, NO Gallery, Milan
Giove, by Mario Fortunato, Museo dei Mari e dei Miti, Crotone

2003
EV+A, by Virginia Pérez-Ratton, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Irlanda
030, by Francesco Tedeschi and Fabio Paris, Palazzo Bonoris, Brescia2002
Entr’acte, Palazzo Albiroli, Bologna

2000
Mind the Gap, by Mario Gorni, Akademie Galerie, Monaco, Germany
Courtesy, Neon Gallery, DLF, Bologna
Teatro Metropolitano Italiano, by Sergio Risaliti, MIART, Milan
Preview, by Gino Gianuizzi and Mauro Manara, Castel San Pietro Terme, BolognaPeriscopio 2000, by Paolo Campiglio, Angela Madesani, Francesco Tedeschi, Fondazione Stelline, Milan

1999
Frame, Galleria Biagiotti, Florence
Effetto notte, by Ludovico Pratesi, Napoli Sotterranea, Naples

1998
Generazione Media, La Triennale di Milano, Milan
Fuori Uso, by Laura Cherubini, Opera Nuova, Pescara
Blue, by Laura Cherubini, Porto Antico, Genova
Alta definizione, by Ludovico Pratesi, Centrale Montemartini, Rome

1997
Il Punto, by Elio Grazioli, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano

1996
→Modernità, a cura di Marisa Vescovo, Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin

1995
Campo, by Francesco Bonami, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venezia – Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene , Turin – Kunstmuseum Malmo, Sweden
Tradition & Innovation, by Francesco Bonami, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Aperto ‘95, Trevi Flash Art Museum, Palazzo Lucarini, Perugia
Della Vita e dell’amore, Castel San Pietro, Bologna

1994
Prima linea, by Francesco Bonami, Trevi Flash Art Museum, Palazzo Lucarini, Trevi, Perugia
Mais ou est donc passe Eros, by Ami Barak and Sergio Risaliti, FRAC – Languedoc – Roussillon, Uséz, France
Turbare il tempo, by Saretto Cincinelli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence
Attualissima, Paesaggio Italiano, Palazzo degli Affari, Florence

1993
Arte e Altro, by Rossella Siligato and Ludovico Pratesi, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
Take the Bare Necessity, by Sergio Risaliti, Gallery Anne De Villepoix, Paris
Critica in opera, by Grazia Toderi and Mauro Manara, Castel San Pietro, Bologna
Arte Poetica, by Nora Halpern, Frederik R., Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University Malibu, California
Nuova ingegneria per l’osservazione e lampi di genio, by Sergio Risaliti, Villa Montalvo, Campi Bisenzio, Florence

1992
Molteplici Culture, by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev and Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Monastero di S. Egidio, Rome
Entre chien et loup, Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble
Hotel des Arts, a cura di Franck Perrin, “La gallerie parlée” 8, Paris Rencontre avec lo Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi,
Retablo, Palazzo Gotico, Piacenza
Lo Spazio di Via Lazzaro Palazzi, ovvero: tirar correndo, by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Spazio Ansaldo, Milan

1991
Volpaia in vista, by Luciano Pistoi, Volpaia, Radda in Chianti, Siena

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2020
Light art, mappatura di una fascinazione text by Liuzzi, Espoarte magazine, N.1 January
Ode alla Maremma, Corriere della sera, Toscana, Chiara Dino
Capalbio diventa uno spazio amato, Il Messaggero
Spazio Amato a Hypermaremma, Arte e critica, ottobre 2020 di Giulia Pollicita
Progetti e utopie nel segno del neon, rivista LUCE Settembre 2020 di jacqueline Ceresoli
Spazio amato l’installazione che dialoga con il territorio, AD sett. 2020 Ludovica Amici
Spazio amato: ode alla Maremma, Vanity fair, luglio 2020

2019
Biennolo, eptacaidecafobia, text by Matteo Bergamini and Carlo Vanoni by ArtCityLab, Postmedia books Editor
Artists are taking the stage, Domus Aurea in Frame magazine n. 127, Amsterdam
La luce come spazio possibile, interview by Massimo Villa in luce e design, magazine, September
La luce nell’arte del nuovo millennio, Text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor
Segni di luce, il disegno come progetto text by Carmelo Cipriani, Segno magazine Sept/Ott

2019
Segni di luce, catalog by Sara Liuzzi, Crac Museum editor, Taranto
Il silenzio, Nei linguaggi installativi, text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor

2018
La sedia di luce accende la notte, by Cristina Campanini in Repubblica, 27 July 2018
La luce nell’arte del nuovo millennio, text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor
Bach Project, di  Roberto Giambrone, sole 24, 4 November 2018
Close up, 10 Atti introspettivi,  text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor
UN VIAGGIO DI LUCE. A Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, l’omaggio di Massimo Uberti a Giulio Romano, di Jacqueline Ceresoli in exibart, magazine, July 2018
ELETTRICITÀ, dalla storia della tecnica alla storia dell’arte, di Alberto Mugnaini and Antonio Savini, Silvana Editor
Biennale light Art Mantova, Text by Peter Assmann a cura di Vittorio Erlindo, Manfredi Edizioni
Lust for Light by Hannah Stouffer, Published by Gingko Press, California, USA
Coreografie tra linee di luce, by Francesca rosso, la Stampa , 13 september 2018

2017
Bunyan, Islamic Art Festival, cat. Publisher by Department of culture, nineteenth editino

Giorgio Pressburger, Due o tre idee sussurrate, in Corriere della sera, page of culture, July 9

2016
After the gold rush, by Marco Bazzini, Ed. Maretti, Forli. Rebecca Roke, Nanotecture: Tiny Built Things, Phaidon, London, Neon Homes and Cities of Tape: 10 Spectacular Art-Architecture Crossovers You Need to Know Now, in “Artspace”. 25 March Martina Adami, Le jardin, in “Insideart”, n. 10 January. Vincenzo de Bellis, Ennesima, exhibition catalog, Mousse Publishing and La Triennale Milano Edition. Cristina Baldacci, Paola Nicolin, Andrea Villani, L’archivio corale, exhibition catalog, Mousse Publishing e La Triennale di Milano Edition. Chiara Gatti, La città Ideale di Massimo Uberti, in “La Repubblica”, 26 March. Martedì critici alla Temple University – Anni ‘80 e ‘90, in “Corriere della Sera”, Rome, 26 January. , BookArt, beyond reading, test byi Irene Moret, Sara Floris and Bruno De Blasio, NAVAPress Milan

2015
Vanja Zanco, Interactions, cat Ed. MSU, Zagreb, Alessandra Caldarelli, Bocs Art, in “Insideart”, October. Vittorio Cerdelli, Disegnare con la luce a Miami, in “Corriere della Sera” (Brescia), 11 March. Vittorio Cerdelli, Amicizia al neon, in “Corriere della Sera” (Brescia), 29 November.

Alberto Dambruoso, Martedì critici, Maretti Editore, Forlì. Rachele Ferrario, Quei tableau vivant che legano le poetiche, in “Corriere della Sera”, 25 November. Frank Karssing, Amsterdam light festival, in National Geographic Italy, December. Marcelo Lima, Dimensao poetica, Interview with Massimo Uberti, Estadao de San Paulo, Brasile, January 2015. Michell Lott, Uma casa de luz para refletir, in “Casa Vogue”, Culture, Brasile, Juanary. Vera Schiavazzi, L’archivio del non realizzato, in “La Repubblica”, 1 October. Élodie Ternaux, Massimo Uberti in Encyclopedia of materials, Laurence King Publishing. Rogier Van der Heide, Amsterdam Light Festival, FLA Edition, Amsterdam. Spazio Amato, Frammenti d’immaginario, By MEME Exchange, Ravenna

2014
Valentina Bernabei, L’arte rifiutata dal museo finisce on line, in “La Repubblica”, 21 June. Alessandro Buganza, Landline, exhibition catalog, Brother’ Art Gallery Edition, Lugano, Swisse. Rita Fenini, Bocconi Art Gallery, in “Panorama”, May. Installation neon par Massimo Uberti, in “Le journal du design”, December. Entre deux chaises un livre, Fondation Boghossian Edition, Brussels

2013
Laura Maggi, Disegni di luce, in “Elle Decor Italia”, June. Helga Marsala, Le città utopiche di Massimo Uberti, in “Artribune”, December. La casa al neon, in “Living – Corriere della Sera”, December

2012
Martina Adami, Il neon è per sempre, in “Insideart”, June. Jacqueline Ceresoli, Stanze d’artista, in “Exibart”, Novembre. Gisella Gellini, Light Art in Italy, Maggioli Editino. Francesco Murano, Light works experimental,  Maggioli Edition. Mauro Panzera, Emanuele Becheri, Massimo Uberti, ArtAlgìA, foglio d’arte, n. IX, Brescia. Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and David Rosembreg, Neon la materia luminosa dell’arte, exhibition catalog, Quodlibet Edition, Rome

Adriana Polveroni, M’illumino di MACRO, in “Exibart”, Juli

2011
Stefano Pezzato in Giorni felici, by  Davide Dell’Ombra, Casa Tesori Edition, Novate Milanese. Gisella Gellini and Francesco Murano, Light Art in Italy, Maggiori Edition

2010
Massimo Uberti, in “Spatii Culturale”, anno III, n. 10, Buzau, Romania. Gisella Gellini and Francesco Murano, Light Art in Italy, Maggioli Edition

2009
Meri Gorni, A quarant’anni in A mio Padre, Campanotto Edition

2008
Ilaria Bignotti Città e luce, Festival Architettura Edition, Parma. Anna Mangiarotti, Interview at Massimo Uberti, in “Il Giorno”, 13 April. Mauro Panzera, Luca Doninelli, Sergio Calatroni, Dreams of a possible city, exhibition catalog, Electa Edition, Milan

Ludovico Pratesi, Incipit, exhibition catalog, Roma. Arte contemporanea, collana, n. 8, Electa Edition. Il Giornale dell’Arte, inserto Milano n. 1, May 2008

2006
Virginia Pérez-Ratton, Lorenzo Bruni, Estreco dudoso, exhibition catalog, TEOR/ èTica Edition, San Josè, Costa Rica

2005
Angelo Capasso, Massimo Uberti, in “Tema Celeste”, n.111, Milan. Rachele Ferrario and Lorella Giudici, Filoluce, Charta Editino, Milan. Mauro Panzera, Città Ideali, ArtAlgìA, foglio d’Arte, n.VIII, Brescia. Pericle Quaglianone, 5500 K, in “Exibart”, April. Rachele Ferrario, Una città circolare tra luce ed ombra, in “Corriere della sera”, 10 March. Mario Fortunato, Museo dei mari e dei Miti, Museum Edition, Crotone

2003
Michela Alfiero, 030, Interview at Massimo Uberti, exhibition catalog, by Francesco Tedeschi and Fabio Paris, Brescia. Delphine Borione, Ludovico Pratesi, Sergio Risaliti, Laura Cherubini, Una casa per l’arte 1997- 2003, Futuro Edition, Rome

Luigi Di Corato, The offical point of view, Actar Edition, Spain and USA. Paola Magni, Lumina, in “Dorul”, Interview at MassimoUberti, XII-bis nr 165, Denmark, November. Virginia Pérez-Ratton, EV+A – On the border of each other, exhibition catalog, Lcga, Limerick, Ireland

2001
Paola Magni, Lucedoro, interviw at Massimo Uberti with text by testo di Paolo Campiglio, “il Cigno” Edition, Rome

2000
Paolo Campiglio, Periscopio 2000, exhibition catalog, Mazzotta Editore. Gino Gianuizzi and Mauro Manara, Preview, Pneuma Edition, Castel S. Pietro Terme (Bologna)

1999
Ludovico Pratesi and Paola Magni, Effetto notte, exhibition catalog, Castelvecchi Arte Edition, Rome

1998
Laura Cherubini, Opera Nuova, “Fuori Uso 98”, exhibition catalog, Arte Nova Edition, Pescara. Laura Cherubini, Blue, exhibition catalog, Philip Morris C Inc. Edition Genova. Paola Magni, Dessin du Dessin, exhibition catalog, ART & RECHERCHE, Ecole de Beaux-arts Edition, Valenciennes, France

Pierre Restany, La ferrea legge del desiderio, in “Domus”, January. Generazione Media, exhibition catalog, Generazione Media, La Triennale Edition, Milan

1997
Costantino D’Orazio and Ludovico Pratesi, Verso il futuro, exhibition catalog, Art Gallery BN Editino, Rome

1996
Laura Cherubini, Ultime generazioni, exhibition catalog, XII Quadriennale, Rome. Bettina Della Casa, Maestà dell’Invisibile, exhibition catalog, Veragouth Arte Contemporanea Editinon.

Marisa Vescovo, Modernità – Progetto 2000, exhibition catalog, Electa Edition

1995
Francesco Bonami, Campo, exhibition catalog, Allemandi Edition, Turin. Francesco Bonami, Tradition &Innovation, exhibition catalog, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Helena Kontova , Uno,cento, mille Aperto, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 192. Jennifer Hftleitner, Mais Où Est Donc Passé Eros, in “Flash Art Internazional”, n.180, February. Sergio Risaliti, Della vita e dell’amore, Pneuma Edition, Bologna

1994
Emanuelle Koenig, Massimo Uberti, Prima linea, Trevi Flash Art Museum, by Francesco Bonami, Giancarlo Politi Editino. Maurizio Bortolotti, Lumière et énergie, Interview at Massimo Uberti, EL GUIA, February. Laura Cherubini, Massimo Uberti, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 185

Alessandro Guerci, Turbare il tempo, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 188. Sabrina Zannier, Eros in giardino, in “Messaggero Veneto”, 2 October

1993
E. Arlix, L. Moro, B. Rudiger, A. Trovato, M. Uberti: Take the Bare Necessity, exhibition catalog, Le Journal des Expositions, n. 6, May, Parigi. Nora Halpern, Arte Poetica, exhibition catalog, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University Malibù Edition, California, 17October. Frank Perrin, Take the bare necessity, in “Flash Art International”, n. 172. Sergio Risaliti, Massimo Uberti, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 172

1992
Ami Barak, Entre chien et loup, Metropolis, Paris. Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Molteplici  Culture, exhibition catalog, Carte Segrete Edition, Rome. Frank Perrin, European Guerrilla, Portraits d’artistes avec groupes, in “Kanal Europe”, April – May, 1992. Roberto Pinto, Molteplici culture, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 169. Grazia Toderi, Critica in opera, Interview at Massimo Uberti, Pneuma Editino. Marco Senaldi, Lazzaro Palazzi-Milano Poesia, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 171.

Massimo Uberti, Lingua, in “Tiracorrendo”, n. 1, September 1992.

1991
Angela Vettese, Volpaia in vista, in “Il Sole 24 Ore”, 8 August 1991.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020
→LOST, Naviglio Martesana, Villa delle Rose, Naviglio Martesana, progetto di arte pubblica di Marco Arosio e Rossana Ciocca, Milano
→Spazio Amato, opera permanente, Oasi del WWF Lago di Burano, Capalbio, a cura di Hypermaremma, Courtesy Terre di Sacra
→Una boccata d’arte, Santuario di Montovolo, Grizzana Moranti, Emilia Romagna, Italia, Courtesy Fondazione Elpis in collaborazione con Galleria Continua

2019
Goldenrock, public landscape, gold leaf on rock, Rio Val Grande, Piemonte

2018
→Belvedere, Omaggio a Giulio Romano, Palazzo Ducale, Complesso Museale Mantova
→LOVED SPACE, a view not a window, by Rossana Ciocca, Via Donatello 7, Milan

2017
→ESSERE SPAZIO, by antonio Oriente and Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Naples, archaeological site of Sapri, permanet work

2016
→After the gold rush, by Marco Bazzini, Spazioborgogno Gallery, Milan

2015/2016
→Spazio Amato, by Angelandreina Rorro, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome

2015
→Le Jardin, Studio Geddes-Franchetti, Rome,
→In your eyes, Three Hills Manufacture Rodchelskaya Street 15, Moscow

2014
→Light, by studio Campbell-Rey, Bentley Elements, Art Basel Miami
→Landline, Brother’s, by Alessandro Buganza, Art Gallery, Lugano, Swisse,

2012
→Annottazioni e mancate risposte, (with Emanuele Becheri), by di Mauro Panzera, A+B Gallery, Brescia,
→Linee di costruzione, Nilufar Gallery, Palazzo Durini, Milan

2011
→Never Off, Galleria Spazioborgogno, Milan

2009
→Gate Now Open, N.O. Gallery, Milan

2008
→Dreams of a possibile City, installation site-specific, Fondazione Stelline, Milan

2005
→5500°k, Paolo Bonzano Artecontemporanea, Palazzo Taverna, Rome

2001
→Lucedoro, by di Paola Magni, complesso monumentale di San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome 2000
→Bella posta, Galleria Neon, Bologna

1999
→Abitare, Care/Of, Cusano Milanino, Milan

1998
→Dessin du Dessin, Vetrines du hall, Ecole de Beaux Art de Valanciennes

1997
→Città invisibile, by Bettina della Casa, Istituto d’arte Depero, Rovereto, Trento

1996
→Maesta dell’invisibile, by Bettina della Casa, Veragouth Arte Contemporanea, Lugano, Swisse

1994
→La ricchezza, by Sergio Risaliti, Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan

1993
→Veritas splendor, Studio Bocchi, Rome

1992
→Largado, TAG Gallery, Udine
→Il trillo del diavolo, Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi, Milan

1991
→VLU, Chiesa di San Zenone, Brescia

1990
→Signori si chiude!, Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi, Milan

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2020
→Compresenze, Note per una fenomenologia dell’apparizione, Giudecca Art District, A cura di Pierpaolo Scelsi e Valentina Gioia Levy

2019
→Biennolo, Milan Art  Biennal, by ArtCityLab, Matteo Bergamini and Carlo Vanoni, Milan
→Segni di luce, Il disegno come progetto, text by sara Liuzzi, CRAC Puglia, Taranto
Experiri, l’ Arte racconta il cammino, Università Cattolica, Milan
Icone Italiane, tra Miti e meraviglie, By Cidneon, Brescia Castle, Brescia

2018
Da uno a dieci, Massimo Minini Gallery, Brescia
→Prospectum, Casa Italia, winter Olympics, Pyeongchang, South Korea
→On longing and consolation, Kunstenfestival, Watou, Belgium
→A cavallo di un raggio di luce, by Alessandro Demma, Parco d’Arte Quarelli, Roccaverano, Asti
→”ANY COLOR YOU LIKE, AS LONG AS IT’ S WHITE”, Spazio 22 Gallery, Milan

2017/ 2018
→NLF by light art collection Amsterdam, Norrkòping, Sweden

2017
→Look now, by Daan Rau, Palazzo Vendramin Costa, Venice
Andar x porte, by ArtCityLab, Palazzo Archinto, Milan
→WunnderMoRE, by MoRe Museum, Maxxi Museum, Rome

– 8208 LDF, by Lorenzo Guzzini Como 

2016/ 2017
→Bunyan, Islamic Art Festival, by Sharjah Art Museum, UA Emirates

2016
Fondo Oro, galleria Disegno, Mantova. LIGHTWAVES, by Quays Culture, Manchester, UK. Anni 80/90: oggetti, processi, relazioni: l’incantesimo del quotidiano, by Alberto Dambruoso and Helga Marsala, Temple Gallery, Rome. BOOKART beyond reading, by  Irene Moret, Sara Floris e Bruno De Blasio, Galleria Della Provincia, Pordenone

2015
Ennesima, Una mostra di sette mostre sull’arte italiana, by  Vincenzo de Bellis and Cristina Baldacci, La Triennale di Milano
Today I Love You, Amsterdam Light Festival
Interactions, by Maroje Mrduljaš and Anthony Sevšek, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
→Way Out, by Paolo Giordano, Spazioborgogno, Milan
More Spaces, by Elisabetta Modena, Marco Scotti, Valentina Rossi e Anna Zinelli, Palazzo Pignorini, Parma
Frammenti di immaginario-esperimenti di riuso urbano, by MEME Exchenge, Casa degli Artisti, MuTA, Ravenna

2014
Entre deux chaises, un livre, by Diane Hennebert and Christophe Dosogne, Foundation Boghossian Villa Empain, Brussels
Bag, IV edizione, Università Bocconi University Milann, Con-temporary, YMC, by Paola Magni, Principality of Monaco
→030.2.0 Arte da Brescia, by Dario Bonetta and Fabio Paris, Castello di Brescia 

2013
Neon, la materia luminosa dell’arte, by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and David Rosemberg, MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome
NOPX Artbook – Limeted editions, Turin

2012
Altra natura, by Stefano Pezzato, Museo Pecci Milan

2011
Giorni felici, by Davide Dall’Ombra, Casa Tesori, Milan
A mina a mano amata, by Giuseppe Pietroniro, Studio Geddes-Franchetti, Rome

2010
Vette, a cura di Ilaria Bignotti, Palazzo Frisaccio, Tolmezzo, Udine

2008
Inscape Landscape, N.O. Gallery, Milan
Incipit, by Ludovico Pratesi, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome
M.A.P., N.O. Gallery, Milan
La forma configge con il tempo, by Mauro Panzera, Galleria Maria Grazie del Prete, Rome

2007
Ma come mai, by Cecilia Canziani, Paolo Bonzano Gallery, Rome

2006
Intangibile Routes, by Virginia Pérez-Ratton and Tamara Diaz, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporaneo, San Jose, Costa Rica
Esercizio#1, Neon Gallery, Bologna
Mutiplo 4, N.O. Gallery, Milan

2005
Filoluce, by Rachele Ferrario, Museo della Permanente, Milan
Entr’acte 2, Arte contemporanea in casa Gallizio, Alba, Cuneo
Multiplo 3, NO Gallery, Milan
Giove, by Mario Fortunato, Museo dei Mari e dei Miti, Crotone

2003
EV+A, by Virginia Pérez-Ratton, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Irlanda
030, by Francesco Tedeschi and Fabio Paris, Palazzo Bonoris, Brescia2002
Entr’acte, Palazzo Albiroli, Bologna

2000
Mind the Gap, by Mario Gorni, Akademie Galerie, Monaco, Germany
Courtesy, Neon Gallery, DLF, Bologna
Teatro Metropolitano Italiano, by Sergio Risaliti, MIART, Milan
Preview, by Gino Gianuizzi and Mauro Manara, Castel San Pietro Terme, BolognaPeriscopio 2000, by Paolo Campiglio, Angela Madesani, Francesco Tedeschi, Fondazione Stelline, Milan

1999
Frame, Galleria Biagiotti, Florence
Effetto notte, by Ludovico Pratesi, Napoli Sotterranea, Naples

1998
Generazione Media, La Triennale di Milano, Milan
Fuori Uso, by Laura Cherubini, Opera Nuova, Pescara
Blue, by Laura Cherubini, Porto Antico, Genova
Alta definizione, by Ludovico Pratesi, Centrale Montemartini, Rome

1997
Il Punto, by Elio Grazioli, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano 

1996
→Modernità, a cura di Marisa Vescovo, Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin

1995
Campo, by Francesco Bonami, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venezia – Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene , Turin – Kunstmuseum Malmo, Sweden
Tradition & Innovation, by Francesco Bonami, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
Aperto ‘95, Trevi Flash Art Museum, Palazzo Lucarini, Perugia
Della Vita e dell’amore, Castel San Pietro, Bologna

1994
Prima linea, by Francesco Bonami, Trevi Flash Art Museum, Palazzo Lucarini, Trevi, Perugia
Mais ou est donc passe Eros, by Ami Barak and Sergio Risaliti, FRAC – Languedoc – Roussillon, Uséz, France
Turbare il tempo, by Saretto Cincinelli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence
Attualissima, Paesaggio Italiano, Palazzo degli Affari, Florence

1993
Arte e Altro, by Rossella Siligato and Ludovico Pratesi, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
Take the Bare Necessity, by Sergio Risaliti, Gallery Anne De Villepoix, Paris
Critica in opera, by Grazia Toderi and Mauro Manara, Castel San Pietro, Bologna
Arte Poetica, by Nora Halpern, Frederik R., Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University Malibu, California
Nuova ingegneria per l’osservazione e lampi di genio, by Sergio Risaliti, Villa Montalvo, Campi Bisenzio, Florence

1992
Molteplici Culture, by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev and Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Monastero di S. Egidio, Rome
Entre chien et loup, Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble
Hotel des Arts, a cura di Franck Perrin, “La gallerie parlée” 8, Paris Rencontre avec lo Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi,
Retablo, Palazzo Gotico, Piacenza
Lo Spazio di Via Lazzaro Palazzi, ovvero: tirar correndo, by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Spazio Ansaldo, Milan

1991
Volpaia in vista, by Luciano Pistoi, Volpaia, Radda in Chianti, Siena

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2020
Light art, mappatura di una fascinazione text by Liuzzi, Espoarte magazine, N.1 January
Ode alla Maremma, Corriere della sera, Toscana, Chiara Dino
Capalbio diventa uno spazio amato, Il Messaggero
Spazio Amato a Hypermaremma, Arte e critica, ottobre 2020 di Giulia Pollicita
Progetti e utopie nel segno del neon, rivista LUCE Settembre 2020 di jacqueline Ceresoli
Spazio amato l’installazione che dialoga con il territorio, AD sett. 2020 Ludovica Amici
Spazio amato: ode alla Maremma, Vanity fair, luglio 2020

2019
Biennolo, eptacaidecafobia, text by Matteo Bergamini and Carlo Vanoni by ArtCityLab, Postmedia books Editor
Artists are taking the stage, Domus Aurea in Frame magazine n. 127, Amsterdam
La luce come spazio possibile, interview by Massimo Villa in luce e design, magazine, September
La luce nell’arte del nuovo millennio, Text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor
Segni di luce, il disegno come progetto text by Carmelo Cipriani, Segno magazine Sept/Ott

2019
Segni di luce, catalog by Sara Liuzzi, Crac Museum editor, Taranto
Il silenzio, Nei linguaggi installativi, text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor

2018
La sedia di luce accende la notte, by Cristina Campanini in Repubblica, 27 July 2018
La luce nell’arte del nuovo millennio, text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor
Bach Project, di  Roberto Giambrone, sole 24, 4 November 2018
Close up, 10 Atti introspettivi,  text by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor
UN VIAGGIO DI LUCE. A Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, l’omaggio di Massimo Uberti a Giulio Romano, di Jacqueline Ceresoli in exibart, magazine, July 2018
ELETTRICITÀ, dalla storia della tecnica alla storia dell’arte, di Alberto Mugnaini and Antonio Savini, Silvana Editor
Biennale light Art Mantova, Text by Peter Assmann a cura di Vittorio Erlindo, Manfredi Edizioni
Lust for Light by Hannah Stouffer, Published by Gingko Press, California, USA
Coreografie tra linee di luce, by Francesca rosso, la Stampa , 13 september 2018

2017
Bunyan, Islamic Art Festival, cat. Publisher by Department of culture, nineteenth editino

Giorgio Pressburger, Due o tre idee sussurrate, in Corriere della sera, page of culture, July 9

2016
After the gold rush, by Marco Bazzini, Ed. Maretti, Forli. Rebecca Roke, Nanotecture: Tiny Built Things, Phaidon, London, Neon Homes and Cities of Tape: 10 Spectacular Art-Architecture Crossovers You Need to Know Now, in “Artspace”. 25 March Martina Adami, Le jardin, in “Insideart”, n. 10 January. Vincenzo de Bellis, Ennesima, exhibition catalog, Mousse Publishing and La Triennale Milano Edition. Cristina Baldacci, Paola Nicolin, Andrea Villani, L’archivio corale, exhibition catalog, Mousse Publishing e La Triennale di Milano Edition. Chiara Gatti, La città Ideale di Massimo Uberti, in “La Repubblica”, 26 March. Martedì critici alla Temple University – Anni ‘80 e ‘90, in “Corriere della Sera”, Rome, 26 January. , BookArt, beyond reading, test byi Irene Moret, Sara Floris and Bruno De Blasio, NAVAPress Milan

2015
Vanja Zanco, Interactions, cat Ed. MSU, Zagreb, Alessandra Caldarelli, Bocs Art, in “Insideart”, October. Vittorio Cerdelli, Disegnare con la luce a Miami, in “Corriere della Sera” (Brescia), 11 March. Vittorio Cerdelli, Amicizia al neon, in “Corriere della Sera” (Brescia), 29 November.

Alberto Dambruoso, Martedì critici, Maretti Editore, Forlì. Rachele Ferrario, Quei tableau vivant che legano le poetiche, in “Corriere della Sera”, 25 November. Frank Karssing, Amsterdam light festival, in National Geographic Italy, December. Marcelo Lima, Dimensao poetica, Interview with Massimo Uberti, Estadao de San Paulo, Brasile, January 2015. Michell Lott, Uma casa de luz para refletir, in “Casa Vogue”, Culture, Brasile, Juanary. Vera Schiavazzi, L’archivio del non realizzato, in “La Repubblica”, 1 October. Élodie Ternaux, Massimo Uberti in Encyclopedia of materials, Laurence King Publishing. Rogier Van der Heide, Amsterdam Light Festival, FLA Edition, Amsterdam. Spazio Amato, Frammenti d’immaginario, By MEME Exchange, Ravenna

2014
Valentina Bernabei, L’arte rifiutata dal museo finisce on line, in “La Repubblica”, 21 June. Alessandro Buganza, Landline, exhibition catalog, Brother’ Art Gallery Edition, Lugano, Swisse. Rita Fenini, Bocconi Art Gallery, in “Panorama”, May. Installation neon par Massimo Uberti, in “Le journal du design”, December. Entre deux chaises un livre, Fondation Boghossian Edition, Brussels

2013
Laura Maggi, Disegni di luce, in “Elle Decor Italia”, June. Helga Marsala, Le città utopiche di Massimo Uberti, in “Artribune”, December. La casa al neon, in “Living – Corriere della Sera”, December

2012
Martina Adami, Il neon è per sempre, in “Insideart”, June. Jacqueline Ceresoli, Stanze d’artista, in “Exibart”, Novembre. Gisella Gellini, Light Art in Italy, Maggioli Editino. Francesco Murano, Light works experimental,  Maggioli Edition. Mauro Panzera, Emanuele Becheri, Massimo Uberti, ArtAlgìA, foglio d’arte, n. IX, Brescia. Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and David Rosembreg, Neon la materia luminosa dell’arte, exhibition catalog, Quodlibet Edition, Rome

Adriana Polveroni, M’illumino di MACRO, in “Exibart”, Juli

2011
Stefano Pezzato in Giorni felici, by  Davide Dell’Ombra, Casa Tesori Edition, Novate Milanese. Gisella Gellini and Francesco Murano, Light Art in Italy, Maggiori Edition

2010
Massimo Uberti, in “Spatii Culturale”, anno III, n. 10, Buzau, Romania. Gisella Gellini and Francesco Murano, Light Art in Italy, Maggioli Edition

2009
Meri Gorni, A quarant’anni in A mio Padre, Campanotto Edition

2008
Ilaria Bignotti Città e luce, Festival Architettura Edition, Parma. Anna Mangiarotti, Interview at Massimo Uberti, in “Il Giorno”, 13 April. Mauro Panzera, Luca Doninelli, Sergio Calatroni, Dreams of a possible city, exhibition catalog, Electa Edition, Milan

Ludovico Pratesi, Incipit, exhibition catalog, Roma. Arte contemporanea, collana, n. 8, Electa Edition. Il Giornale dell’Arte, inserto Milano n. 1, May 2008

2006
Virginia Pérez-Ratton, Lorenzo Bruni, Estreco dudoso, exhibition catalog, TEOR/ èTica Edition, San Josè, Costa Rica

2005
Angelo Capasso, Massimo Uberti, in “Tema Celeste”, n.111, Milan. Rachele Ferrario and Lorella Giudici, Filoluce, Charta Editino, Milan. Mauro Panzera, Città Ideali, ArtAlgìA, foglio d’Arte, n.VIII, Brescia. Pericle Quaglianone, 5500 K, in “Exibart”, April. Rachele Ferrario, Una città circolare tra luce ed ombra, in “Corriere della sera”, 10 March. Mario Fortunato, Museo dei mari e dei Miti, Museum Edition, Crotone

2003
Michela Alfiero, 030, Interview at Massimo Uberti, exhibition catalog, by Francesco Tedeschi and Fabio Paris, Brescia. Delphine Borione, Ludovico Pratesi, Sergio Risaliti, Laura Cherubini, Una casa per l’arte 1997- 2003, Futuro Edition, Rome

Luigi Di Corato, The offical point of view, Actar Edition, Spain and USA. Paola Magni, Lumina, in “Dorul”, Interview at MassimoUberti, XII-bis nr 165, Denmark, November. Virginia Pérez-Ratton, EV+A – On the border of each other, exhibition catalog, Lcga, Limerick, Ireland

2001
Paola Magni, Lucedoro, interviw at Massimo Uberti with text by testo di Paolo Campiglio, “il Cigno” Edition, Rome

2000
Paolo Campiglio, Periscopio 2000, exhibition catalog, Mazzotta Editore. Gino Gianuizzi and Mauro Manara, Preview, Pneuma Edition, Castel S. Pietro Terme (Bologna)

1999
Ludovico Pratesi and Paola Magni, Effetto notte, exhibition catalog, Castelvecchi Arte Edition, Rome

1998
Laura Cherubini, Opera Nuova, “Fuori Uso 98”, exhibition catalog, Arte Nova Edition, Pescara. Laura Cherubini, Blue, exhibition catalog, Philip Morris C Inc. Edition Genova. Paola Magni, Dessin du Dessin, exhibition catalog, ART & RECHERCHE, Ecole de Beaux-arts Edition, Valenciennes, France

Pierre Restany, La ferrea legge del desiderio, in “Domus”, January. Generazione Media, exhibition catalog, Generazione Media, La Triennale Edition, Milan

1997
Costantino D’Orazio and Ludovico Pratesi, Verso il futuro, exhibition catalog, Art Gallery BN Editino, Rome

1996
Laura Cherubini, Ultime generazioni, exhibition catalog, XII Quadriennale, Rome. Bettina Della Casa, Maestà dell’Invisibile, exhibition catalog, Veragouth Arte Contemporanea Editinon.

Marisa Vescovo, Modernità – Progetto 2000, exhibition catalog, Electa Edition

1995
Francesco Bonami, Campo, exhibition catalog, Allemandi Edition, Turin. Francesco Bonami, Tradition &Innovation, exhibition catalog, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Helena Kontova , Uno,cento, mille Aperto, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 192. Jennifer Hftleitner, Mais Où Est Donc Passé Eros, in “Flash Art Internazional”, n.180, February. Sergio Risaliti, Della vita e dell’amore, Pneuma Edition, Bologna

1994
Emanuelle Koenig, Massimo Uberti, Prima linea, Trevi Flash Art Museum, by Francesco Bonami, Giancarlo Politi Editino. Maurizio Bortolotti, Lumière et énergie, Interview at Massimo Uberti, EL GUIA, February. Laura Cherubini, Massimo Uberti, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 185

Alessandro Guerci, Turbare il tempo, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 188. Sabrina Zannier, Eros in giardino, in “Messaggero Veneto”, 2 October

1993
E. Arlix, L. Moro, B. Rudiger, A. Trovato, M. Uberti: Take the Bare Necessity, exhibition catalog, Le Journal des Expositions, n. 6, May, Parigi. Nora Halpern, Arte Poetica, exhibition catalog, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University Malibù Edition, California, 17October. Frank Perrin, Take the bare necessity, in “Flash Art International”, n. 172. Sergio Risaliti, Massimo Uberti, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 172

1992
Ami Barak, Entre chien et loup, Metropolis, Paris. Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Molteplici  Culture, exhibition catalog, Carte Segrete Edition, Rome. Frank Perrin, European Guerrilla, Portraits d’artistes avec groupes, in “Kanal Europe”, April – May, 1992. Roberto Pinto, Molteplici culture, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 169. Grazia Toderi, Critica in opera, Interview at Massimo Uberti, Pneuma Editino. Marco Senaldi, Lazzaro Palazzi-Milano Poesia, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 171.

Massimo Uberti, Lingua, in “Tiracorrendo”, n. 1, September 1992.

1991
Angela Vettese, Volpaia in vista, in “Il Sole 24 Ore”, 8 August 1991.

PLACES FOR POETIC INHABITANTS

From catalog After the gold rush,
Maretti Edition, Forli
2015

Light is an indispensable tool in the hands of an artist, and a material on a par with others in architecture.
Directly connected to our perception of the world, light –which has always been used to enhance surfaces and volumes – since the dawn of artificial lighting has played a more independent role in formal and structural processes.
With its dematerializing energy, light has contributed to the decline of the opacity of bodies and volumes that has taken over much of artistic and architectural output since the second half of the last century (1).

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The scenario has taken form in slightly more than one hundred years, precisely since neon light became a new presence in the world. The development of fluorescent and differently colored tubes by the French physicist Georges Claude opened up a ne era, starting in the first decade of the 1900s (2), just as in this new millennium LED technology has triggered another step forward in the world of technical lighting. Light has altered our relationship with panoramas and nightlife in cities, no longer only in the metropolis, revealing solid architecture in terms of essentially luminous signs,
adding another dimension in the visual arts, expanding its symbolic value to match what had previously been that of painting, because no longer confined to a metaphorical plane. The spiritual essence light evoked for centuries swerved into a secular suggestion; luminous effects conquered real space, just as shadow – closely connected to light – no longer played an exclusive role in the chromatic relationship or in the creation of atmosphere. Finally, the light source, coinciding with the illuminated object, assumed full status inside the space of communication.

So light constitutes a new expressive field that artists and architects cannot overlook, precisely due to the value of novelty it has introduced and the quality of the experience it is able to provoke. Beauty, amazement, knowledge, functional quality, wellness gain new vitality from skillful use of light. These considerations of a general character should be followed by more specific ones referring to the    individual tension applied by each agent towards luminous expression, and its intersection with other themes pollinate the works. To approach the individual, to zoom in on the particular, in this case means focusing on Massimo Uberti, an artist who works with light, even making it the generative feature of all his pieces. Without light his works would not be visible, not because they are wreathed in total darkness, but because they would be deprived of their main essence, their poetic power. Luminous energy is a source of life and Uberti reinforces it in this role in the art world. In his research light does not only have the task of revealing the work, but also that of making it a material apparition, of holding it together in its conceptual coherency, offering it to the visitor as a passage outside the void. The artist’s investigation of form, though starting with some characteristics shared by his generation, that which at the start of the 1990s ran up against the dispersal of form, has eluded any constraints in terms of style, broken every rule with its free use of the widest range of media. It has been experienced in individuality with an extreme rigor that reminds us of the controlled steps of a tightrope walker. And, as for the acrobat, it is not a question of technique or artifice, but instead of a natural tendency to walk on the edge, to measure each step, to experience vertigo as a real emotion, in his case the virtual character of the luminous phenomenon in its evanescence and physical essence.

He stands in silence at the crossing, acting as its gatekeeper, waiting for the visitor to enter and thus lose his condition of inexperience. It is in this game of offering and expectation that the inner adjectival sense Uberti has of space takes on meaning, as he declares in short statements: necessary space, beloved space, awaited space, infinite space, or other space. To which we should add “being space,” i.e. the readiness for action, to become part of it. After such statements, it immediately seems clear that spatial quality is pursued in all his works, most of which are made on site; a long chain that may seem like a sort of continuous performance, always in new “theaters.” Works in which space intertwines with the tendency and taste for drawing as well as a utopian projection with respect to the society. Art as a force of warning and aspiration for a new world, as the defeat of cultural and mental shadows, remains the beacon that shows the course. In his works, once again, the experience of art and everyday life is presented as a single unified universe. And Uberti presents this unity not with incursions into sociology, geopolitics or information, but with the grace and joy of one who dwells in art and is closely engaged with it, because the work gives rise to other places and embraces past and future. If we have to identify a detour into another discipline, Uberti makes it in architecture, and even more specifically in its projective origin in which the concerns of giving form to a better world are registered. This vicinity gives force to his works around ideal cities, which in turn are the perfect meeting point of political and aesthetic thought. Starting with the new millennium, Uberti reinterprets, on various occasions, the projects of these cities governed by the superior spirit of Humanism precisely because the foundations of good habitation are rediscovered in their ideas and aspirations. But before analyzing the mature results, it is worth backtracking a bit to examine his early works, which offer a useful narrative to interpret everything that is documented in the photographic part of this volume. The first exhibition was in the space on Via Lazzaro Palazzi in 1990, a space independently organized by a group of artists, recent graduates of the Brera Academy in Milan, among whom Uberti was the youngest of all. A slide projector aims the image of an industrial building, the refuse recycling plant of the city of Brescia, at a plexiglas box containing cockroaches. The insects, which move inside the transparent container, make the slide look like a video projection that does not actually exist. The title, “… Signori … si chiude!,” (Gentlemen, it’s closing time!), undoubtedly propitiatory for a debut exhibition, in its apparently bizarre statement contains a typical expression used to clear out a bar, an invitation to participate: only those who have entered can be urged to find the exit. Two architectures, real and virtual, equally humble and inexpressive, are put into a relationship. And light immediately plays an important role because “it permits giving form to such a complex relationship”(3) because it illuminates the space and gives substance to the image. Also in the next show, at the church of San Zenone in Brescia, a slide is projected, and once again the setting is charged with presences from the past that dialogue with an image of the present. The fragments of frescoes inside the building are joined by a wooded landscape with the large inscription, in graceful characters, VLU, which in Provencal means velvet, a material that was widely and carefully represented in Renaissance painting. This installation speaks of the art-nature relationship, referencing the history of art in which different timeframes and forms intertwine. With discretion, it respects and reinvents the historical character, thanks precisely to the use of light. Uberti’s projections offer the stimulus to reflect on the presumed neutrality of space, even when it appears as a screen, and they define his tendency to technically resolve the work with simplicity, which has remained a distinctive characteristic of his work over time. With the participation in the “Imprevisto” project at Castello di Volpaia in 1991, for the first time Uberti makes the beam of light itself the protagonist. In fact, a powerful beacon placed atop an olive tree lights a pavement of golden yellow industrial tiles. Il dittatore (The Dictator), the title of the outdoor work, introduces an unexpected event in the night of the Tuscan countryside and imposes its presence as an artifact in a natural context. The contextual disorientation, though in an opposite direction, returns in the installation Vegetali di Milano presented the next year at Le Magasin in Grenoble for a group show, when the artist places a series of streetlamps in the large hall of the contemporary art center. An installation that straight from its title references the odd, innocent and poetic adventures of Marcovaldo, the protagonist of the book by Calvino of the same name, and which observed from a temporal distance marks the first step in his career for an architectural-sculptural function generated by the lighting together with the fixtures that spread it. A passage that only arrives definitively at the end of the decade; in fact, in the 1990s Uberti is engaged in reflections around the use of the photographic image, which as we know is a way of “writing with light,” and later on its virtual nature, thanks to the advent of new software. This direction of research, however, does not prevent Uberti from continuing his experimentation with on-site installations, in which he continues to use projections or backlighting, as happens in the exhibition “La maesta` dell’invisibile” or in “Empedocle” at Studio Bocchi in Rome. The themes are still those of art history (for the Roman show he uses a plaster copy of the Cavaspina in the Capitoline Museums), of viewing and distortion, internal-external relations, materials of various nature. In a moment in which also in art what is sought is the media event, Uberti reacts by trying to follow a different path, closer to his ethic as an artist, and more closely focused on the universal values of the work. His challenge has always been to shine light on the less familiar side of things. This is the period of a series of photographic works with a visionary tone, in which the predominant figure is the house or a fragment thereof, suspended amidst clouds or doubled in the night. These are joined by images of lit windows in the darkness, which in continuity with what has been done so far take the title of Sipari luminosi (Luminous Curtains) or Abitare (Dwell). This title is again found in the backlit drawings of a crouching body or a window with its blinds raised.

Finally, it is also used for that simple house, almost a child’s drawing, made in 1999 with just 15 neon tubes, like luminous linear pencil strokes. Here we can see confirmation of what has been done to date, but also the start of his way of operating directly with light in space. Furthermore, this synthetic structure brings to completion his dialogue with architecture identified as the “cradle of human and social existence, place of meaning, place of foundation.” (4) From now on the fragile contours drawn by neon that allude to the presence of man and whose emotional content is expressed by a void continue without interruption in his work. They are citations of architectural fragments that appear like symbolic more than real theatrical wings or sculptures, luminous cages facing infinity, as also evoked by the titles of some of the works dated 2005 and 2006. The themes return of an iconography of the past, as in Uno studio or the simpler “desk,” while the link with the design drawing, precisely because there are lines in space, becomes closer, more literal: as if the structure had been projected into space with respect to the drawing. But here too, Uberti is ready to sidestep, to shuffle the deck, to transform it into writing because he is aware of the fact that “if you move they do not catch you”, as he wrote in 2005 in a tribute to Pinot Gallizio. His luminous neon statements only partially evoke the conceptual radicalism of the 1960s; Uberti softens them in terms of the typical legacy of Middle Eastern culture of drawing as a form of writing, and of the lesson of Lucio Fontana and his “arabesque” for the 11th Milan Triennale in 1951. The already mentioned statements regarding the value to attribute to space take on an environmental dimension and light up their destinations with new meaning. Altro spazio (Other Space) made for Museo Pecci Milano amplifies the museum impact of the operation of Centro Pecci of Prato, that of opening a new “showcase” (5); Spazio amato (Loved Space), reprised for the large entrance hall of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, invites the visitor to reconsider the value of a museum as a common asset, while the same phrase, with less orderly characters and outdoors, in Ravenna, declares the love for art and its diversity. Though in a public space, Today I Love You, a permanent work on the bridge in front of the central station in Amsterdam (made during the Amsterdam Light Festival in 2016), offers each individual observer its moving and playful message, documented inthousands of snapshots posted on Instagram. Strictly private, but of no less impact for those lucky enough to have access to their homes, are the inscriptions “esserespazioamatonecessarioinfinito” (to-be-beloved-necessary-infinite-space) or “il faut cultiver notre jardin” (we must cultivate our garden), with which Uberti plays once again with ethics and aesthetics. Never Off, on the other hand, written in neon and presented for the exhibition of the same name at Spazioborgogno in Milan in 2011, seems instead to allude to light as a source of infinite energy. The exhibition offers a variety of luminous signs that no longer form a single environment but individual elements (an approach also seen in other exhibitions from the same period), though the vision is one of great unity, and in spite of the fragmentation the parts form a single tableau. Mai spento, “never off,” returns obsessively in the show, almost as if to convey Uberti’s vigilance with respect to art and light, but also the phantasmatic character of his works that can “die” simply when a switch is turned off. When Uberti, in 2015, at Art Basel Miami, for the English automaker Bentley, makes the work Drawing of a drawing, the piece is not an architectural phantom; like the other luminous structures, it does not have the same overtones as the Franklin Court by Robert Venturi in Philadelphia. The structures are always something alive, ready for entry, though they exist only in terms of their neon boundaries; they are sources of ethical and aesthetic energies, aspiring to measure, the tact of proportions, to beauty, in the final analysis. One good example in this direction towards the ideal of life and art is the large public installation made in 2008 at Fondazione Le Stelline, entitled Tendente infinito. In the already striking Magnolia cloister, Uberti reproduces on a large scale the drawing of Sforzinda, the ideal city designed by Filarete in 1465 circa. It is a suspended plan made with neon tubes that acts as a filter between the real city of Milan and the sky, almost as if to indicate a new constellation and therefore a new route. In the words of the artist, it is a “city that does not have man at the center, that is still capable of dreaming, returning to gaze upward.” It can truly be said that Uberti not only sheds new light on one of the most characteristic threads of Italian architectural thought (6), but also inverts the perspective, since what was previously seen from above is now visible from below; he proposes the possibility of living in the ideal city in a real way, just as several years earlier he offered, on a different scale, the dimension of walking in the cities reproduced on carpets woven in 2004 in Rajasthan, or like the mirror cities in which it is possible to see one’s reflection, becoming part of them, in 2013. Participation is one of the fundamental aspects of Uberti’s work, and light is a means of creating relations. Of course Uberti is well aware of the fact that an ideal city cannot exist, and that it cannot even be imagined outside of art. But he also knows that art is one of the most powerful messages to indicate a different future. While architects and urbanists can build only functional cities, the artist can take the more problematic position of reiterating utopia. So eight years after that experience, Uberti again evokes the ideal city in the exhibition “After the Gold Rush” at Spazioborgogno. This time the title takes its cue from a song by Neil Young, but it alludes to the gold of the space blankets, the metallized thermal covers used in emergency situations, by now in a massive way due to the rescues of hundreds of thousands of refugees attempting to reach Europe across the Balkans or by sea, heading for Lampedusa and Sicily. The bright, golden skin of this industrial material used to wrap human beings and save lives becomes the “module” on which to write new words and to draw, once again, as a plan or a perspective, the city of Sforzinda. On the floor, a portion of the neon work from 2008 is placed, so it can continue to light up the world with its poetry, but also so it can amplify the reflectivity of what springs from an urgent situation of the present. Repetita iuvant, just as poetry has to help reality and ethics has to unite with aesthetics: now that the gold rush is only a misleading glimmer, we have to necessarily build the ideal city in which to live in harmony, in the sharing of space but also of values. Uberti, in all these years, has moved step by step on these boundaries, with surprising refinement and elegance, to offer places for poetic inhabitants.

Marco Mazzini

NOTES

(1) Though in art the first experiences date back to the start of the 1930s with the big play of lights and shadows of LaÅLzloÅL Moholy-Nagy in Licht-Raum Modulator or the first neon sculptures by the Czech artist Zdeněk PešaÅLnek, it is since 1951, when Lucio Fontana made that arabesque in space entitled Struttura al neon per la IX Triennale di Milano, that this new dimension begins and spreads.

(2) “Neon – la materia luminosa dell’arte,” curated by David Rosenberg and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Quodlibet, Macerata, 2012.

(3) Mauro Panzera, Under the Sky of Milan, in Massimo Uberti – Dreams of a possible city, Electa, Milano, p. 14.

(4) Mauro Panzera, op. cit., p. 34.

(5) In April 2010, during my term as director, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato opened a space at Ripa Ticinese 113 in Milan, for the display of items from the museum’s permanent collection. This project came to an end in March 2014.

(6) Fabio Isman, “Andare per citta` ideali”, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2016.

BIOGRAPHY

Massimo Uberti (Brescia 1966). Lives and works in Milan. He graduated at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. In the early ‘90s he was member of the Lazzaro Palazzi artist’s group in Milan. He got a lot of appreciations in Italy and abroad including, Piazza dei Mercanti in 2007, 5th edition Camera of Commerce prize, Milan, in 2008, Tendente Infinito in the exhibition Dreams of the possible city, Fondazione Stelline, Milan. In 2012 he won the international prize Artist’Book NOPX in Turin. In 2013 he was selected by an european commission for the work- shop New narrative for Europe, in Milan and in Berlin.

Special recent projects: He draws for the choreographer Diego Tortelli the scenes of Domus Aurea produced by Fondazione nazionale della danza/ Aterballetto and coproduced by MITO, Teatro Stabile of Torino – MILANoLTRE Festival, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels.
Today I love You, Amsterdam Light Festival 2015; Light, Miami-Basel Design 2014, Bentley Elements; Altro spazio, a site specific work for the seat of Museo Pecci Milano, 2011. From 2008 to 2014 he was teachin’ Painting and Visual Art at the Accademia di Belle Arti Santagiulia, in Brescia. In 2013 he managed the training course Macroscuola in MACRO – Contemporary Art Museum, in Roma.
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