mi story en English

 

Franca Gualmini was born in Pavullo nel Frignano and lives between Polinago, in the Modenese Apennines, and the island of Tenerife. Her life and art are nourished by these two landscapes, different yet complementary: on one side, the memory of roots, forests, and voices of the Apennines; on the other, the light and openness of the ocean.                                          Painter and writer, she has exhibited in more than 180 shows in Italy and abroad, participating in group and solo exhibitions in cities such as Venice, Paris, Montecarlo, Florence, Rome, Turin, Barcelona, Berlin, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Modena, Perugia, Abetone, and Montecatini. Among the most significant milestones:                                                                                                                                                                                  1998: solo exhibition at the Carlo Scarpa Space in Venice, Piazza San Marco 101, during the Biennale.      A work exhibited at the Salvador Dalí Museum in Berlin, testimony to the international scope of her research.                                                                                                                                                                                              In Turin, recognition at the Teatro Regio and exhibition at the historic La Telaccia Gallery.                                       

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In Montecarlo, exhibition at the Hotel de Paris, in the prestigious Bosio and Beaumerchais halls.         

 

Numerous exhibitions in Modena, at the Centro Arte e Cultura Torre Strozzi, and in Perugia, in major national events.                                                                                            2023: exhibition at the Real Club Náutico of Lanzarote, organized with the Società Dante Alighieri, consolidating her link with the Hispanic cultural world.                                                                                                        Recognition at the Premio Breda and exhibition of her painting Interpretation of the Mona Lisa at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, a highly prestigious honor.                                                                                                            Award with exhibition in Noale (Venice), which highlighted her work in a culturally significant context. Invitation to exhibit at the Cloister of San Francesco delle Vigne in Venice, where art critic Vittorio Sgarbi publicly praised her with the words “Bravissima”.                                                                                                                  She has also held four solo exhibitions dedicated to Van Gogh’s Japanese Album: one at the Espace de Nesle in Paris, two at the Ateneo San Basso in Venice, and one in Bardolino.                                                          Her training includes the Diploma of Academy awarded by the Accademia Federiciana of Catania, as recognition of her artistic and cultural career. She has received numerous awards, including:

Premio Italia for Visual Arts (Florence)

Premio Emilio Greco (Catania)

Premio Dea Minerva (Florence)

First Prize for Graphics in Florence with Eco d’Arte Moderna

Award in Certaldo, both for graphics and painting

Award at the Modigliani Gallery in Milan, received at the beginning of her artistic career

Alongside painting, Gualmini has cultivated writing, publishing two poetry books – one in collaboration with G. Grenzi and another with her own texts and paintings – and three collections of illustrated short stories: Stories from the Apennines (2020), New Stories from the Apennines (2022), and Stories from the Apennines – Fables and Truths of Humans and Animals (2024).                                                                                               

In 2024 she exhibited in a solo show at the Antica Corte of Casa Marini in Polinago, bringing her art back to the heart of her Apennine roots. She is currently working on her first novel, Two Twins, a Donkey and a Murderer, which she writes and illustrates herself: a project that unites word and image, memory and invention, confirming her vocation to intertwine different languages into a single narrative and artistic vision.                                                                                                                                                                                                Her work as a whole is distinguished by the ability to merge painting and writing, landscape and psychology, tradition and modernity, offering the public a poetic and authentic universe, rooted in reality yet open to imagination.