Gino De Dominicis is likely an artist you may not be familiar with. This is for good reason.  He spent most of his life avoiding contact with the art world and is widely viewed as an illusive and mysterious artist.  If you’ve heard of him, you know he’s quite an interesting story.  The Rome based artist was some what of a cult figure in European art circles and know for his eccentricities. The myth’s about the artists biography are especially interesting concerning his reported death in 1998.  De Dominicis, in a 1969 work, issued a poster bearing his own death notice.  In this work, De Dominicis was said to have predicted his own death to the very hour, day, and year, and was supposed to have died on November 29, 1998—a fact that still remains largely unchallenged, however it would be easy to see why some would be skeptical.  Oh, and did I mention that this work predicting his death in 1969 was in his first solo show?

Needless to say, he’s an incredibly interesting character and as a bonus, he’s got some really great art too.  Surprisingly, there’s a good amount of info online about the artist.  Its hard to tell where fact and fiction overlap, diverge and even fade into fantasy.  A line the artist was very careful in blurring.

Check out the show at PS.1

A good New York Times article from 1990 at Gino

Gino De Dominicis: Invisibility and Immortality

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Bio

Gino De Dominicis was born in 1947 in Ancona, Italy and lived in Rome until his death in 1998. He had many solo exhibitions, including Galleria L’Attico, Rome, Italy (1970, 1971, 1974); Galleria Pieroni, Roma (1979); Galleria Pio Monti, Rome (1977, 1980); Galleria Toselli, Milan (1995); Galleria Mazzoli, Modena (1998);  Palazzo Taverna, Rome, Italy (1972, 1977); Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples, Italy (1988); The Murray and Isabella Rayburn Foundation, New York, NY (1989); Centre National d’Art Contemporaine, Grenoble, France (1990); His work has been included in group shows, including Biennale Internatzionale della Giovane Pittura, Bologna, Italy (1970); VII Biennale de Paris, Parc Floral de Paris, Bois de Vincennes, Paris (1971) ; Documenta V, Kassel, Germany (1972); 8th Biennale de Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville et Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1973); Italy two: Art around ’70, Museum of Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia (1973); Prospectretrospect Europe 1946-1976, Stadtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Germany (1976); 40th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1980); Identité italienne, l’art en Italie depuis 1959, Centre George Pompidou, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris (1981);Fiera d’Arte Contemporanea Internazionale, Milan, Italy (1988); 44th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1990); 45th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1995); 47th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1997).

March 3rd, 2009 Subscribe to the RSS feed!