Pietro Ruffo

Life and work

Originally introduced to art by his grandfather, Ruffo became an artist's apprentice at the age of fourteen, working for two years before setting up his own studio in the countryside of Filacciano. He graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Rome in 2005 and moved to the Ex Pastificio Cerere in San Lorenzo, a historic artist's residence.

In 2005, Ruffo travelled to Beslan, Russia, to work with children who survived the massacre at their local school by Chechen rebels. Immediately following the event, the artist worked as an art therapist, running workshops for the child survivors of the Beslan massacre. His time spent in Beslan inspired a major work entitled, Beslan doppia mappatura (Beslan Double Mapping) 2006, which illustrates the destroyed classrooms and surviving children. In 2011, Ruffo was selected for The Premio New York fellowship at Columbia University. The research conducted during his time there served as the foundation for his series entitled, “The Political Gymnasium” which centres on the politico-philosophical writings and arguments of Robert Nozick. This series was exhibited at BlainSouthern gallery in 2012.

The artist is represented by Galleria Lorcan O'Neill since 2006, and also by BlainSouthern in London since 2012.

Philosophy

Ruffo’s artwork deals with questions concerning the nature of freedom and addresses a wide range of social, moral and political issues. Ruffo’s practice reflects his intense social and moral concerns, as well as his stance on specific ethical issues. Working with media including drawing, painting, digital photography and video, he creates intricate and meticulously detailed objects which demand an intense manual working process. The artist’s research is scholastic and yet his notes are graphic, rather than written. He discusses work not as a finished product but as a process-based research, open-ended and in continuous development. On his philosophy, Stella Santacatterina, author of, “Pietro Ruffo: An Art of Unbounded Territories” writes,

Ruffo’s Flag Series from 2006 illustrates contemporary colonisation as predatory. The works are composed of layered geographic image sources upon which the artist draws national flags made up of the intricate skulls of predatory mammals. On these works, Santcatterina writes,

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions