About
Giovanni Scotti
Born in Naples, Italy, he graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and completed a Master’s in Photography & Visual Design at NABA, Milan.
He works primarily with photography, while expanding his practice into installation, video, and participatory projects. Since 2014, he has been an active member of the photographers' group Presente Infinito.
His artistic research investigates the contradictions and opacities of the contemporary socio-political landscape, with particular attention to liminal spaces, infrastructures of control, and participatory forms of artistic practice.
Through close observation of the aesthetics of abandonment, his work explores the ambiguities that emerge where documentation and perception overlap, producing images that resist fixed interpretation.
Through photography, he examines how images shape the perception and understanding of urban environments, focusing on processes of transformation, displacement, and the production of meaning.
In 2020, he founded Innobiliare Sud Ovest (ISO) Un-real Estate, an ongoing project that appropriates the language of real estate communication as a critical device to reflect on public space and systems of value.
CV
Education
2009 – 2010 Master in Photography & Visual Design, NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan
2003 – 2007 Degree in Painting, Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli
Awards & Grants
2024 Portata e impatto dell’arte sostenibile nell’Europa sudoccidentale: il caso di Palermo (Sustainable Art in Southwestern Europe: the Case of Palermo), University of Palermo – Winner
2021 Strategia Fotografia 2020 (Italian Ministry of Culture) – Winner
2018 UVA International Art Prize – Winner
2018 Getxophoto International Image Festival – Selected
2017 Photographie et Architecture Triennale #6, ULB, Brussels – Selected
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Palermoscape, Museo Antonio Pasqualino, Palermo – curated by Diego Mantoan
2023 Innobiliare Sud Ovest. Visioni insostenibili, Studio Lombard DCA / BBS-Lombard, Milan – curated by Lara Gaeta
2020 Innobiliare Sud Ovest. L’agenzia che mette in vendita beni pubblici, Edenlandia, Naples – curated by Diego Mantoan
2019 Cinnamon Heart: Peepshow, aA29 Project Room, Caserta – curated by Diego Mantoan
2019 Dissipare le nebbie, Il Pomo da DaMo, Imola – curated by Angela Madesani
2018 Lieux à la recherche d’un signifié (apparement) perdu, Archi5, Montreuil (Paris) – curated by Chiara Zocchi
2016 La città del disincanto, Fotografia Europea, Casa Museo Pietro Ghizzardi – curated by Giovanni Chiaramonte, Giulia Morelli
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Fotografia alla Carriera, ADI Design Museum, Milan
2022 Madonie. Paesaggi 1973/2021, Palazzo Pucci Martinez, Petralia Sottana
2021 La bellezza del Sacro, Fondazione Stelline, Milan
2019 EDRA50 Brooklyn, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, New York
2018 Getxophoto International Image Festival (Post Conflict / Reframing a Dialogue), Spain
2018 Spatium / Le stanze del contemporaneo, Palazzo Botti, Torre Pallavicina (BG)
2018 Photographie et Architecture Triennale #6 (Paradis infernaux / Enfers paradisiaques), Brussels
2017 Imago Mundi (Doni / Authors from Campania), Madre Museum, Naples
2015 Presente Infinito, Castel dell’Ovo, Naples
2014 Presente Infinito, Palazzo Ziino, Palermo
Art Fairs (selected)
2021 Artefiera PLAYLIST
2019 ArtVerona
2018 Artefiera, Bologna
2014 Photissima Art Fair, Torino
Talks, Presentations & Workshops
2025 Presentation – Innobiliare Sud Ovest (Special Issue), Il Dispaccio Bookshop, Naples
2025 Exhibition design workshop, University of Palermo (DAMS), Palermo
2025 Public presentation – Sulla pelle della città (urban visual cultures), Museo Antonio Pasqualino, Palermo
2024 Urban mapping workshop – Palermo Graffiti project, University of Palermo, Palermo
2024 Public talk – Street art and public space in Palermo, University of Palermo, Palermo
2021 Presentation – Madonie. Paesaggi 1973/2021 (territorial archive project), Palazzo Sant’Elia, Palermo
2017 Presentation – La città del disincanto (urban perception & representation), Museo Madre, Naples
2015 Presentation – Presente Infinito, Museo Madre, Naples
2014 Public talk – Presente Infinito (collective urban narratives), Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, Palermo
2009 Book presentation – Prossimamente, Vignola
Residencies
2021 Madonie. Paesaggi 1973/2021, Petralia Sottana
2012 ARI 1, Academy of Fine Arts and Design University of Ljubljana
2009 Artist in residence, Cervinia
Collections & archives
Museo Civico Antonio Collisani, Petralia Sottana
Imago Mundi – Luciano Benetton Collection
Publications
— Books
2025 Sulla pelle della città. Street Art e Nuovo Muralismo a Palermo / On the city's skin. Street Art and New Muralism in Palermo, Edifir Edizioni Firenze
2022 The Palgrave Handbook of Digital and Public Humanities, Palgrave Macmillan – handbook
2023 Innobiliare Sud Ovest, Felici Editore
2015 La città del disincanto, Rogiosi Editore
2014 Presente Infinito, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore
2009 Prossimamente, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore
— Catalogues
2023 Fotografia alla Carriera. Omaggio della fotografia italiana ai maestri del Compasso d'Oro, ADIper
2022 Madonie. Paesaggi 1973/2021 Fondo storico e nuove committenze, Comune di Petralia Sottana
2021 La bellezza del Sacro. Milano e la Scuola Beato Angelico 1921-2021, Arte Cristiana
2018 Premio Internazionale UVA, QuiEdit
2018 GETXOPHOTO 2018 / Trantsizioak Transiciones Transitions
2018 Spatium, Scalpendi Editore
2018 Photographie et Architecture Triennale #6 / Paradis infernaux Enfers paradisiaques
2016 Doni. Authors from Campania / Imago Mundi Collection, Antiga Edizioni
2014 SIFEST#23 / laboratorioItalia, Pazzini Editore
2013 Paleocontemporanea 2013. Elementi di trascendenza nell’arte dall’antichità al presente, Edizioni Arte'm
— Magazines & Journals
2019 DOVE / Corriere della Sera
2018 Arte Cristiana N. 908
2018 ARK 25 – “Occhi che vedono”, by Elena Turetti
2018 Sette / Corriere della Sera – “Il miraggio di Bagnoli”, by Massimiliano Virgilio
2015 Artribune #24 – “Giovanni Scotti”, by Angela Madesani
2010 WIRED Italia, issue no. 19
2009 NOTHING TO SEE HERE #1 “The Others / Gli Altri”, edited by Francesco Jodice
— Online Press
2026 l’ArcaWEB – “Innobiliare Sud Ovest (I.e not noble) with a double N”, by Michele Bazan Giordano
2025 Der Greif – “Black Box” | Guest Room: Charmaine Toh & Philippe Pirotte
2025 Papireto / 04 – “Street art e nuovo muralismo a Palermo nel volume di Diego Mantoan, Giovanni Scotti”, by Serena Giordano
2025 Artribune – “‘Sulla pelle di Palermo’. Il libro che racconta la città attraverso la urban art che la colora”, by Gabriella De Marco
2023 Juliet Art Magazine – “A Milano le Visioni Insostenibili di Giovanni Scotti / Giovanni Scotti’s Unsustainable Visions in Milan”, by Bruna Giordano
2021 Exibart – “Spazi pubblici da ‘vendere’ e curare, con l’arte: il progetto di Giovanni Scotti”, by Fabio Avella
2020 Domus – “L’agenzia che rivende ai cittadini proprietà pubbliche non utilizzate / The estate agency that resells unused public properties to citizens”, by Raffaele Vertaldi
2016 L’Espresso – “Parco dello Sport a Bagnoli, trentasette milioni di euro buttati al vento”, by Giovanni Chianelli
2015 Artribune – “Talenti fotografici. Intervista a Giovanni Scotti”, by Angela Madesani