Francesco Bonami

Born in Florence in 1955, Francesco Bonami has lived and worked in New York since 1987.

He has recently been nominated curator of the 75th Whitney Biennial of American Art that will take place in New York in 2010 and designated by François Pinault as a co-curator with Alison Gingeras of the inaugural exhibition of the center of contemporary art of Punta della Dogana and of the new exhibition of Palazzo Grassi in June 2009.

He has previously worked with François Pinault in 2008 as he curated the exhibition Italics.
Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution, 1968-2008, co-organized by Palazzo Grassi and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) at Chicago, presented first in Venice and then in Chicago from November 14, 2009 to February 14, 2010.

Francesco Bonami is also the Artistic Director of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l’Arte in Turin, and of the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery in Florence and he is also in charge of the artistic direction of ENEL Contemporanea, a series of public commissions in Italian cities. From 1999 to 2008, Francesco Bonami was the Manilow Senior Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA) and from 2004 to 2008, he was the Artistic Director of the Centro d’Arte Contemporanea Villa Manin in Passariano (Udine). In 2003, he was the Director of the 50th Biennale of Arts, in Venice.
His most recent exhibitions include a worldwide retrospective of Jeff Koons (2008) and a first anthology of Rudolf Stingel (2007), both for the MCA, Chicago. Now, he is working on a first anthology of Glenn brown for the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and for the Tate Liverpool, that will be presented in June 2009.

He is the Contemporary Art Editor for the magazine Domus and the curator of the book series Supercontemporanea by Electa. His editorials appear regularly on Il Riformista, Vanity Fair Italia, Panorama First, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Il Corriere della Sera Firenze. He is a contributor for other English- language publications such as The New York Times Magazine and Artforum.

Francesco Bonami is also the author of books on contemporary art, including “Echoes: Contemporary Art at the Age of Endless Conclusion” published by Monacelli Press in 1996, “Cream” and Maurizio Cattelan’s monograph both edited by Phaidon in 1998 and 1999 and “Lo potevo Fare Anch’io” by Mondadori. He wrote his first novel “Lezioni di Fumo” published by Marsilio Editore in 2005. He recently published his book “Irrazionalpopolare” with Luca Mastroantonio edited by Einaudi and another book with Mondadori “Dopotutto non è brutto” in March 2009.