FILIPPO ROSSI

After graduating in Art History, since 1997 Filippo Rossi (1970) has been a teacher at Stanford University, where he holds courses on Studio Art and Contemporary Art and Museology.

Since 1997 he has also been collaborating with Monsignor Timothy Verdon, Director of the Museo dell’Op­era of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.

Rossi has been exhibiting regularly since 1994, and has been working for years as a site-specific artist for private clients and public bodies. His works are displayed in museums and private and public collections in Italy and abroad. On 21 November 2009 he was the youngest artist invited to the audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the Sistine Chapel, since for over 20 years he has also been engaged with subjects of sacred art. In 2010 he designed the first interfaith meeting room at the new Meyer paediatric hospital in Florence. In 2011 he was invited by the Florence Cathedral Foundation to take part in the competition for a pulpit for the cathedral. In 2012 he was at the Derix Glass Studio in Frankfurt (Ger­many) to transpose some of his works into stained glass. He works for the Italian market and also for the United States, China and Korea. He holds regular training workshops in Italy and in the United States. A regular conference speaker, he has also been invited to Yale University in New Haven (Connecticut) to give a lecture about the meaning of his art.

Over a long and fruitful phase of research Rossi has experimented with new, chemically-produced materials such as extruded polystyrene and foam, as well as reutilising natu­ral products such as paper, jute canvas and wood, frequently succeeding in the creation of authentic “abstract icons”. His commitment is aimed at encouraging the observer to pause before the image. In this way the work – immediately intri­guing for its colours and composition – upon deeper insight acquires an ulterior meaning, introducing an intimate com­munication, almost a dialogue, between the artist-creature and his Creator. Rossi’s works are silent and spare; the only concession to opulence is in the use of gold, which is offset by the frugality of the other colours and materials.

Rossi’s works have often been published, or used as cover photos, in books published by Mondadori, San Paolo, Electa and Àncora Editrice, and his work has been reviewed in newspapers including La Repubblica and La Nazione. He writes for and collaborates with journals specialised in art history and criticism. He has published catalogues for various artists as well as essays on artistic techniques.

His solo shows include those at the Museo della Porziuncola in Assisi, the Arciconfraternita della Misericordia in Florence, the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, the Monastery of Camaldoli in Arezzo, the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Boscodon in Crots (Francia), the Mount Tabor Ecumenical Centre for Art & Spirituality in Barga (Lucca), Cape Cod (Massachusetts, USA), Palazzo Panciatichi and Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, the Meiboyi Arts Centre in Shanghai (China), and in Bressanone, Bergamo and Cortona. His work has also been exhibited at the Italian Embassy of Fès-Rabat (Morocco), the Fondazione Ducci in Rome, the Dadian Gallery in Washington DC (USA) and in Florence at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, the church of Orsanmichele the Museo Marino Marini, the Palazzo Francesco Datini in Prato and at the Teatro Niccolini in Florence.

In 2018 the artist created the “Magnifice Filippo Rossi” brand that encompasses his entire artistic production. His activity can be explored on the website www.magnifice.it and on Instagram, Facebook and his YouTube channel “Magnifice Filippo Rossi”.