New York-based, multi-media artist Federico Solmi (b. 1973, Bologna, Italy) exploits the virtual architecture of video games to create a phantasmagoric world of whirling space, jerking movement and oscillating facades. Solmi’s art investigates the contradictions and inaccuracies of historical narratives that have led society into a chaotic era of misinformation.
In 1999, lacking any formal education or training in fine art, Federico Solmi left Italy and immigrated to New York City to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. He had a profound hunger for learning and very quickly immersed himself in the explosive cultural scene of his newly adopted city "where pornography, religion, violence, greed, sex and blood baths coexist in perfect harmony,” visiting galleries and museums and reading books on history and philosophy. His experiences as an outsider helped to shape his views of Western culture and post-modern consumerism which he translated into raw “visionary” drawings, paintings, and rudimentary stop-motion animations.
Over the course of two decades Solmi has transformed himself into an accomplished and respected video artist and painter, with an impressive and growing list of museum exhibitions and collections, international biennials and honors to his name, including the 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship in Video Art, the Main Prize at the 2015 B3 Frankfurt Biennial, and finalist in the National Portrait Gallery's 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. In 2017, Robert Storr appointed him visiting professor in New Media Art at Yale University, where he taught for several years.