Gigi Rigamonti

Gigi Rigamonti (born 8 April 1949) is an Italian artist, sculptor and designer. Educated at the Royal College of Art in London and attended the Department of Economics at the University of Pavia and the Department of Philosophy at Università Statale of Milan. His art is influenced by Constantin Brancusi, Hieronymous Bosch, Jean Arp, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian.

Rigamonti was born in Desio (Milan). In 1983 he participated in the show on Patafisica, curated by Enrico Baj, at Palazzo Reale in Milan. In 1989 he exhibited at Gianni Versace show "Un abito per pensare", at Sforza Castle in Milan. In 1992, Rigamonti held a show at Golden Gallery in Tokyo. In 2002, he participated, with a solo exhibition, in the first edition of Art Basel in Miami Beach.

In 1969 Rigamonti's mother, Rachele, bought a mannequin factory in Palazzolo Milanese "Rosa Manichini" founded in 1922. Later Gigi changed a name of the factory for "La Rosa". Today Gigi Rigamonti is a President of La Rosa SpA. During the crucial 1980's La Rosa transformed the concept of mannequin around the world. In 2002 Rigamonti founded ArtandGallery in Milan.

In 2003 he inaugurated Danza, an installation for the cruise ship Costa Mediterranea which was launched in 2003. Danza is an enormous wall decorated with a Matisse-like dance of mannequin-sculptures, glowing with light and decorative details. The ship's elevators are transparent capsules from which passengers can scan the entire field of vision. In 2005 he exhibited Il Circo at the Xingfucun Art Center, and in 2007 he participated in Pagina d’artista at Spazio Anfossi. In Shanghai, in 2007, he displayed Plastic desire, an enormous installation at Times Square, in collaboration with the Italian Chamber of Commerce in China. His collaboration with Shanghai Times Square is proposed once again over the following two years with two different installations, Il Circo and Il Tango., In 2009 he inaugurated his solo show, Cross Stories, in Milan at Artandgallery., In 2010 Rigamonti was invited with the exhibition "Cross stories" in a mall, a hi-tech place at Shanghai Times Square in China.

In May 2013, at Blanchaert Gallery in Milan has presented the exhibition "When the semantics becomes art" curated by Arturo Schwarz. In September 2013 Gigi Rigamonti was exhibited at Broadway Gallery NYC in New York on the occasion of the exhibition 'Global Projects - Artists at home and abroad'. In October 2013, in Panama he took part at the exhibition "La Mola, Art Sin Fronteras" with sculpture entitled 'Bambino che mangia, anche'. The exhibition was curated by Carla Brusa and was sponsored by INAC (the institute of national culture) and Italian Embassy.