Pietro Ruffo, photo Giorgio Benni
Pietro Ruffo (Rome, 1978); graduated in architecture from the University of Roma Tre, he won the Cairo Prize in 2009 and the New York Prize in 2010 and he received a research scholarship from the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University.
The relationship with the images is an integral part of his research itinerary, which stems from a series of philosophical, social and ethical considerations and is developed through a profound conceptual dimension of art that stem from his training as an architect.
For Ruffo, drawing and carving are instruments of a research that analyses historical and contemporary dynamics, giving shape to installations that take on environmental dimensions. The artworks are articulated in superimpositions of natural landscapes and human forms, geographical maps and constellations, geometries and traces of writing. The result is a stratified work with multiple visual and semantic layers that investigates the great themes of universal history, in particular freedom and dignity of the individual. In recent years he has exhibited at major international museums and institutions including: Biennale di Venezia, Italy; Musei Vaticani, Vatican City; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de la Universidad de São Paulo, Brazil; Galleria Borghese, Italy; Zhejiang Art Museum (ZAM), Hangzhou City, China; MUSA Museo de las Artes Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico; IA&A AT HILLYER, Washington DC, USA; MAXXI-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Italy; Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Italy; The Bardo National Museum, Tunis, Tunisia; Indian Museum, Calcutta, India; Reggia Contemporanea, Villa Reale di Monza, Italy; Triennale di Milano, italy; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City.
He has received several important public commissions, which have led him to expand his work into an urban dimension.
In 2006, he created the confessionals for the Church of the Holy Face of Jesus in Rome designed by Architects Sartogo and Grenon.
In 2019-2020 - on the centenary of the Garbatella garden district - together with 100 students of the department of Architecture of Roma Tre, he realized a work on the idea of reconstructing, preserving and transmitting the cultural heritage of places, marking the stratified urban spaces, modelled on the entire depth of the culture of social groups.
In 2021 he realized the work Migrante, for the Parco dei Daini at Villa Borghese in Rome.
In 2024 he has created a large installation for the 60th Venice Biennale.
Some of his works are in important public and private collections including: Musei Vaticani; Farnesina Collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; MIMS Ministero delle infrastrutture e dei trasporti; MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo; Fondazione Roma Tre; Teatro Palladium; MAR - Museo d'Arte della città di Ravenna; Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Bilotti, UniCredit Collection, Deutsche Bank Collection; Villa Firenze, Italian Embassy in Washington, USA; Italian Embassy in Canberra, Australia; Italian Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania.