BIOGRAPHY
The artist must be the means, not the aim of art: an ambassador of principles greater than himself. - E.M.
My art comes from a silent dialogue between cosmogony and spirit, between origin and transformation, between myth and matter. I believe each work is an attempt to visualize what we cannot see: the initial explosion of the universe, the invisible texture of dark matter, but also what happens within: archetypes and metamorphoses of the being. My mission is to build visual bridges between the different realms of knowledge and feeling, between the rigor of the scientific data and the freedom of the soul.
Enrico Magnani is an Italian artist known for his works that integrate art, science and spirituality. He graduated in nuclear engineering from the Milan Polytechnic and worked as a scientific researcher in the field of nuclear fusion at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). His original abstract works have brought him international attention and have been presented in museums, foundations, private galleries and public institutions in Europe and the USA. With the brand Kangra, he created the collection "Art Couture - an artist's sweater" He is co-editor and co-author of the book "Advances in Cosmology" published by Springer. He holds seminars and workshops on creativity, exploring the constructive use of error and intuition.
Magnani's first abstract exhibition, "Matter and Symbol," was held at the Centre Culturel Franco-Allemand in Karlsruhe in 2010. Archetypes and matter will also dominate the scene in subsequent exhibitions at the Italian Institutes of Culture in Prague with "Harmonices Mundi" (2013) and "Magnum Opus" (2016), and in Stuttgart with "Mystical Treasures in 2013. In 2015, at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Magnani displayed in an exhibition-event for the Akbaraly Foundation "Cosmic Hug," a work in which the cosmological and cosmogonic references become increasingly clear and evident. The exhibition "Universal Flag" held at the Zhou B Art Center in Chicago in 2016 is also in this transitional phase. The year 2017 opens with the retrospective "L'Oro della Terra" at the Chiostri di San Domenico in Reggio Emilia, his hometown, which marks a closure of the material-archetypal period to make way for the cycle of the cosmos with "Supernova - Birth to Life" exhibition held in the same year at the Italian Institute of Culture in Chicago. The works from the Supernova series returned to Italy and in 2018 were exhibited at the Sala del Cenacolo in the Chamber of Deputies, in Rome. The artist's comeback in the world of science is marked, in 2019, by the exhibition "Searching the Unknown - The Dark Matter Collection" set up at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, where phosphorescent works are being exhibited for the first time; the exhibition will also be brought in the same year to L'Aquila at the Gran Sasso Science Institute on the occasion of the National Congress of the Italian Physical Society. 2020 is the year of "Quintessence," a permanent installation on astro-particle physics created at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory. In December 2022, the book “Advances in Cosmology | Science - Art - Philosophy”, which he is co-editor and co-author, is published by Springer publishing house. In the last years (2022-2023) Magnani brings his works further closer to the public, receiving great attention thanks to the intentional interactivity of his exhibitions titled "Light in the Dark," in Bologna, Sala Borsa, on the occasion of the International Conference on High Energy Particles (ICHEP) and in Genoa on the occasion of the XXI Festival of Science at the University Library. In 2023 and 2024, the meeting with Kangra, the brand of excellence in cashmere, brings Magnani's art into the world of fashion with the creation of the "Art Couture" collection.
FULL ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHY
Enrico Magnani is an Italian contemporary artist known for his works that integrate art, science, and spirituality. He graduated as a nuclear engineer at the Polytechnic University of Milan and worked as a researcher in the field of nuclear fusion at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology). At a certain point in his scientific career, he felt the need to proceed along those paths of knowledge where purely rational speculation is not enough. After an initial figurative period, his original abstract works quickly brought him to international attention and since 2010 they have been presented in museums, foundations, private galleries and public institutions in Europe and the USA. He holds seminars and workshops on creativity in art and in life through the constructive use of error and intuition.
After his first figurative period in which he painted bodies and faces only with the explicit intent to "amplify to shock", represented by the galleries in Milan and Nice (1997-2003) and in some collective exhibitions in Venice, Innsbruck, and Palmi, Magnani enters in a transition period that can be defined as “a blackout of meaning”, namely a lack of faith in the message of his artworks that made him lose the momentum for public exhibitions, but not the desire to seek and to paint.
Magnani left Milan for Paris (2004-2006), where he continued to work on the human figure which is transformed, becoming more clean and symbolic. Only in Germany, Karlsruhe (2006-2011), did he definitively attain abstract painting, material and symbolic, with a higher message and, this time, "worthy of being conveyed".
GSSI, L'Aquila - 2019
In June 2023, for the international conference "Supernova Neutrino Detection," at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory - L'Aquila, he presents his permanent installation between art and science "Quintessence" (present on site) to researchers. In October, he brings his interactive exhibition "Light in the Dark" from Bologna to Genoa for the 21st Festival of Science, hosted at the historic site of the University Library. In November, he exhibits some of his works from the "Supernova Dark Matter" series at the presentation of the book "Advances in Cosmology | Science, Art, Philosphy" at the CERN library in Geneva, together with Nobel Laureate Michel Mayor (Co-author of the book). Also in November, in Milan, at the IULM University, he presents a preview of "Art Couture," the collection between art and fashion inspired by his cosmogonic works and created for the brand of excellence in cashmere, Kangra; the release is scheduled for the fall-winter 2024 season.
IULM University, Milan - 2023
2025 begins in Turin, at the MIIT Museum, with the retrospective exhibition “Chroma & Critica – 15 anni di sinestetica visione” (Chroma & Criticism – 15 years of synaesthetic vision); a journey that showcases the last 15 years of artistic creation interpreted and commented on by art historian Guido Folco. In September of the same year, the book “Equazioni di Bellezza – Un viaggio nella creazione artistica tra alchimia e cosmologia” (Equations of Beauty – A journey into artistic creation between alchemy and cosmology) is published, a richly illustrated volume in which Magnani reveals the techniques and meanings of his works from his beginnings to the present day. In the same month, in Frascati (Rome), at the Scuderie Aldobrandini, on the occasion of European Researchers' Night, a new edition of “Light in the Dark” was inaugurated, an increasingly immersive and interactive traveling exhibition-project. In November, three works from the “Supernova Dark Matter” series will be permanently exhibited at CERN-CMS: the latest milestone in a collaboration, active since 2019 with the art@CMS program, aimed at promoting dialogue between art and science around the world.
Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati (Rome) - 2025
CERN-CMS, Cessy (France) - 2025
MY STORY
BOOKS BY ENRICO MAGNANI
