Biography
Renato Li Vigni
Renato Li Vigni was born in Barinas, Venezuela in 1970. In 1979 he moved to Italy, settling in Bagheria in Sicily, his parents’ hometown, and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. From an early age he began to participate in exhibitions and competitions in the Palermo hinterland, achieving his first successes by winning some international events including the A.S.L.A Città di Palermo award. In the following decade he devoted himself to religious representations, creating an altarpiece for the Madonna delle Catene church in Palermo in 1993 and a baptismal font for the Cathedral of the same city in 1997. In 2000 he created a series of paintings narrating the life of Padre Pio for the Ficarazzi house of prayer in Palermo. He also carried out the conservative restoration of the vault of the mother church of Ficarazzi. After two years he moved to Lastra a Signa (Florence), where he currently lives and works and finds inspiration for further work. He continues his interest in religious themes and addresses them under a new light full of chromatic and material strength.
In 2002 he exhibits in Florence, Certaldo and Montespertoli. The following year he is selected for the Arte 2003 Giorgio Mondadori award dedicated to young contemporary artists. In 2004 he is awarded a gold medal by the President of the Italian Republic for the Alberto Sordi competition in the National Library of Rome. Several subsequent exhibitions: at the Expo Arte in Bari, at the international art award of the Ministry of Infrastructure at Palazzo Comitini in Palermo, at the Civic Pinacoteca Amedeo Modigliani in Follonica, at the Pino Zoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Forlì, and at West Florence in Campi Bisenzio. In 2008 he joins the international event “MC Donald Arte” where he establishes himself as an emerging artist in the panorama of contemporary art in Tuscany. In 2012 he had a solo exhibition at the Giovanni Bellini Museum in Florence, a new event of its kind, where the work of his hands takes on new Light and language. Other events in collaboration with the Tornabuoni Gallery in Florence.
His works are found in private collections both in Italy and abroad, such as in the collection of the President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and in that of the Savoy Princes.
Born in 1970 in Venezuela in the city of Barinas, Li Vigni moved to Italy at the age of 9, precisely to Bagheria in his beloved Sicily. And it was in Palermo that in 1993 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. After a short period in Florence he arrived in Montecatini, a small town in the province of Pistoia, where he still lives today. Following an initial figurative period, his approach to art shifted towards an abstract and material language. He has taken part in many exhibitions and art events. His works are found in public and private collections.