Federico Solmi

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1973 in Bologna, Italy, Federico Solmi now lives in New York. His groundbreaking work in video and audio was recognized with the award of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2009. Solo museum surveys include American Circus at the Haifa Museum of Art in Haifa, Israel, in 2016; The Grand Masquerade at the Tarble Art Center in Charleston, Illinois, in 2019; and Joie de Vivre at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey, in 2022–23. In September 2024 his solo show The Great Farce opened at the Block Museum of Art Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Solmi was also the subject of a major exhibition in Venice, Italy at Palazzo Dona’ Dalle Rose, “Solmi: Ship of Fools,” during the Venice Biennale in 2024. “Solmi: Ship of Fools” was also the subject of a major exhibition in Venice, Italy at Palazzo Donà Dalle Rose, during the Venice Biennale in 2024.

In 2018, Solmi participated in the citywide project Open Spaces: A Kansas City Arts Experience in Kansas. In 2019, his work was included in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s traveling exhibition The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today. In 2021, he was featured in the Phillips Collection’s centennial exhibition Seeing Differently as well as the inaugural exhibition of the Ocean Flower Museum Island in Danzhou, China. He has participated in several international biennial exhibitions, including the SITE Santa Fe Biennial in New Mexico in 2010; Venice Biennale in 2011; Shenzhen Animation Biennial in China in 2013; and Beijing Media Art Biennale in 2016.

From 2016 to 2019, Solmi was Visiting Professor at Yale University School of Art and Yale School of Drama, New Haven, Connecticut. He was appointed Guest Critic at the Yale University School of Art for 2022.

Solmi’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including the Phillips Collection (Washington DC), The Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix AZ), The Block Museum (Evanston, IL), The Thoma Foundation (Chicago, Santa Fe), Pinacoteca di Brera (Milano IT), Table Art Center (Charleston, IL), 21 C Museum Hotel (Louisville KY), Fundacion Mer (Madrid ES), Ocat Oct Contemporary Art Terminal (Shanghai CN), Collezione Farnesina Experimenta (Rome IT), Collezione Bologna Fiere SPA (Bologna IT).

Monographs:
Ship of Fools, Gangemi Editore, 2024.
Escape Into The Metaverse, Black Dog Press, 2023.