Artists

Vincenzo Balena (Milan, 1942) began his artistic career in the 1960 in the wake of existential realism, devoting himself to the study of animal morphology. Since the early 70s he exhibited regularly at the Gallery Montrasio of Monza and the Galleria del Naviglio in Milan. Soon his work meets the interest and support of Mario De Micheli and Marco Rosci, followed by Rossana Bossaglia, Carlo Pirovano and Lea Vergine. In the early '80s, influenced by the work of Pasolini, to whom dedicated a series of paintings and sculptures, Balena comes into contact with poets and writers such as Antonio Porta, Giovanni Raboni and Roberto Sanesi.

In particular Raboni who followed with interest the subsequent investigation of the human figure: disiecta membra, fragments of clay suspended in wires. Follow wax sculptures, bronze, wood and aluminium embossed, exhibited in prestigious places (such as the House of Giorgione in Castelfranco Veneto), International venues (Dusseldorf, Prague, New York). The current phase of his research, franked by explicit figurative references, explores the expressive resources of technological waste, prothesis of the human mind subtracted to oblivion induced by the rapid evolution of elettronics.

The most recent exhibitions include: the retrospective in 2011 at the Galleria Sagittaria in Pordenone, presented by Giancalro Pauletto, and the participation in the 54^th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, signaled by the poet Maurizio Cucchi; in 2013 solo show “Dialogue compositional sculptures by Vincenzo Whale” at the Fondazione Benetton Treviso, with texts by Claudio Alessandri and Daniele Goldoni, and in 2014 the exhibition “Masks of Iphigenia” in Villa Badoer in Fratta Polesine (Rovigo), presented by Valter Rosa. Also in 2014, for Stresa Festival Orchestra, he worked with sculptures and scenic elements of the Orpheus by Stravinsky, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, directed by Stefano Monti and Monique Arnaud,and in 2015 he realized the sculptures stage for Nabucco, conducted, by Aldo Sisillo and directed by Stefano Monti, at the Teatro Comunale in Modena, with performances at the Teatro Pergolesi Spontini Jesi and at the Municipal Theater of Piacenza.