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Biography

Gianni Poretti was born in Lugano on 9 May 1946.
In 1963 he moved to Neuchâtel where he successfully accomplished an apprenticeship as glass blower.
In 1970 Poretti started to create several stained-glass windows for churches in Ticino and abroad. Still, he never abandoned his paintings and the glass-blowing technique.
In 1995 he began researching in the field of glass-melting, training in Bergamo and Milan. From 1997 onwards, the artist has been interested in the process of transforming matter. At this stage, in his sculptures, Gianni Poretti melts glass with oxides, light and precious metals, reproducing the process of formation of the cosmos. The artist draws his inspiration from the creation of the universe and from personal visions of the changing elements and from archaic forms of life.
In 1998 he participated in several exhibitions, starting in Lugano and Genoa with the cycle of tondi entitled “Glass histories”, which tell about different stages of his work: from the moment when glass is cut to the first contact with metals, from the softening to the melting and cooling stage. His many journeys to France, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg and Spain, which he undertook spurted primarily by his participation in a number of exhibitions, alongside the discovery of African and Maya sculpture during his stays in the Black Continent and Mexico, led the artist to move forward taking new directions in his aesthetic research.
In 2001 he presented the “3di” cycle, with steles and tondi which Poretti fires three times to create three-dimensional sculptures, where, after melting twice, the glass is placed on a mould that has been obtained with several materials, by which the object develops into a third dimension. In his most recent works the artist abandoned geometrical forms, creating the so-called “Transparencies” cycles and the “N-F” Non Forms, where new volumes are marked by unexpected protrusions, concavities and convexities with enticing colour effects obtained after several meltings.
  In 2006 his installation UNIVERSO, a composition of 11 rounds (planets) got one of the ten prices  by an international art jury and has been exhibited by the Glass Museum.
Gianni Poretti is an active member of National (VISARTE) and the International Association of Art.

Gianni Poretti lives and works in Canobbio, in via San Bernardo 41, Switzerland.
 
 
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