Ligama
Ligama was born in Caltagirone in 1986 and studied in Catania where his artistic career began.Student of the Academy of Fine Arts, he soon became Assistant to the Chair of Engraving which he left in 2015 to devote himself exclusively to painting after having obtained several awards and prizes. After years of research on printing techniques, he continued his artistic journey by investigating the pixels as elements that make up the virtual image. He painted his composition and dissolution mechanisms while in 2015 made his debut with the solo exhibition 8Bit Un mondo a pixel in Bologna later presented in Vodnjan (Croatia). In his investigation the pixels are the atoms of a new telematic and inconsistent matter, they are the pigments of a divisionist painting, the cells that welcome the sound-color frequencies analyzed by him and converted through a cocreation process with an algorithm of artificial intelligence.
His painting practice soon evolved in studio and public spaces; in 2016 he created his first public works between Catania, Palermo and Rome. He took part in the Emergency Festival of Giardini Naxos, the Amt Project in Catania and created a permanent work inside Palazzo della Cultura in Catania. He also painted three altarpieces in the Church of the Crucifix in Caltagirone. The following years saw him dedicated to large-scale interventions. The first one at the Palacongressi of Agrigento, then at the Farm Cultural Park and in Trapani, where he painted on the entire surface of an imposing eco-monster seized from the mafia. In 2019 he took part in Abstracta (Palazzo Trigona Noto, Edieuropa Gallery Rome), an exhibition that brings together the most important Street Artists of the Italian panorama. Matera, Capital of European Culture Foundation, commissioned him to do public work in the city in 2019. He was also among the artists of Countless Cities, the Biennial of the Cities curated by Farm Cultural Park. In 2019 he was also invited by the Italian Cultural Institute in Moscow for the Artika Festival and the Macro (Museum of Contemporary Art Rome) for a residence in the Macro Asilo project. In 2020 he is in the Festiwall line up for the Bitume Platform in Ragusa and in 2021 called by the Capital of Culture Foundation for a public work in Parma.
His best-known work is UL which manipulates the Sicilian rural landscape by transferring new information on the ruins: audio recordings reworked in colors that result in unpublished combinations dictated by the palette provided by the algorithm. The pixels become mobile and macro and the colors find balance with the territory that belongs to them, forcing travelers to stop and look at the landscape. This work is a sort of artistic meditation for Ligama who, after arriving at the essence of the virtual image, restarts from the origins of our figurative culture. Since 2019 colors coexist with classical figures that, like ruins, suddenly appear in his work. This series start with Noblesse Oblige project and it develops in Sikanie and it characterizes his current private and public production, in Italy and abroad.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019
Noblesse Oblige, Galleria Uovo alla Pop, Livorno
2017
Catania Infinite Jest, Palazzo della Cultura, Catania
2016
16bit, Palazzo Corvaja, Taormina
2015
8bit, Galleria Portanova 12, Bologna
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
When urban attitudes become contemporary art, 21 Gallery, Treviso
2021
Art makes you travel again, Rosso20sette Gallery, Rome
2019
Abstracta. Da Balla alla Street Art, Galleria Edieuropa, Rome
2017
Hall of Fame, Palazzo Ceramico Caltagirone, Catania
2016
Verba Volant Arte Manet, Palazzo Cutelli, Catania
Segni Agathae, Le Ciminiere, Catania
2015
Nuovi Codici, Palazzo Stanga, Cremona
Sguardi per una città visibile, Palazzo della Cultura, Catania
Welcome to Paradise, Modica, Ragusa
Camouflage Project, Museo di Camo, Turin
2014
Moon, Villa Filippina, Palermo
Disegnare il Settecento, Castel Nuovo, Naples
2013 La Febbre dal 3 al 6, Palazzo Della Cultura, Catania
Noto incisa, Palazzo Trigona, Noto, Ragusa
Meet_ology, Museo Civico Archeologico Teano, Caserta
Segno Insegno, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome
2012
Percorsi Paralleli, Museo Emilio Greco, Catania
Nuovi Confini, Le Ciminiere, Catania, Museo Montevergini, Siracusa
Area 189, Palazzo Della Cultura, Catania
Singolo Plurale, Palazzo Fragapane , Grammichele, Catania
2010
Et Verbum Caro Factum est, Scuderie di Juvarra, Venaria, Turin
Prizes and fairs
2020 Asilo, Macro, Rome
2019 Smach Biennale, Dolomiti
2015 Madre Terra, Castello Aragonese, Pizzo Calabro (Vv)
2014 Premio Limen, Vibo Valentia
2013 Young Showcase , Museo MAGMA, Caserta
2011 Premio Nazionale delle Arti, Brera, Milan
2010 Premio Nazionale delle Arti, Accademia Belle Arti, Naples
2007 Premio Nazionale delle Arti, Le Ciminiere, Catania
Fiere
2021 Arte in Nuvola, Nuvola di Fuksas, Rome
2016 Urban Art Fair, Carreau du Temple, Paris
2016 Set Up, Autostazione, Bologna
2015 Art Factory, Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino, Catania
2014 Art Market, Budapest
2012 Art Market, Budapest
2011 AgrigentoArte Segnali dal tempo, Palacongressi Agrigento
2009 AgrigentoArte Segnali dal tempo, Palacongressi Agrigento
2008 AgrigentoArte Segnali dal tempo, Palacongressi Agrigento
Public art
2022
Sikanie, Ła grandę Madre e lo Stagnone, San Cono, Catania
2021
L’amuri ca mi dasti ti lu tornu, Rosolini, Siracusa
Apologia, Memorie Urbane,Terracina, Latina
Diritto, Istituto Penitenziario Bicocca, Catania
Opùntia, Vico del Gargano, Foggia
Omero è una donna, Trap Festiwall, Trapani
MAking capodoglio, Muru Festival, Torrenova, Messina
Urban Noise, Lentini, Catania
Geometrie Bianche, Grammichele, Catania
Carni e Crepe il Santo nudo, Prac, Ponzano Romano, Rome
Santi, Cristi, rocce, trabattelli e anacronismi, Chiesa di San Pietro, Siculiana, Agrigento
Senza niente Intorno, Capitale della Cultura, Parma
I giocolieri, Regalbuto, Enna
Generazioni e germogli, Agrigento
Ecce Homo, Bivona, Agrigento
Sangu, Palagonia, Catania
Natura effimera, San Michele Di Ganzaria, Catania
Hai mai giocato con le nuvole?, Palermo
Paesaggi e redenzione, Istituto Penitenziario per Minori Bicocca, Catania
Di Umana Memoria, Ruderi di Montevago, Agrigento
Solo una rosa, Empoli
Conversion, Misterbianco, Catania
Poseidon, The Wawe Studio, Catania
Generazioni e germogli, Agrigento, Fontanelle
Ecce Homo, Bivona, Agrigento
Sangu, Palagonia, Catania
Hai mai giocato con le nuvole?, Palermo
2020
Come nasce il mondo, Agrigento
Come una goccia, Caltagirone, Catania
Aci e Galatea, Acicatena, Catania
Abisso, Ravanusa, Agrigento
Consecutio Temporum, Montevago, Agrigento
Senza spine la rosa sarebbe un fiore qualunque, Alcamo, Trapani
Fiori di glicine, Livorno
Se solo fossimo ancora in tempo, San Vito Lo Capo, Trapani
Kore, Museo del Mito, Enna
Pece e gloria, Festiwall Ragusa, Ragusa
Di pietra di spirito, Lercara, Palermo
Il peso della persistenza, Sciacca
Apparizione, Caltagirone, Catania
Sorgente, Caltagirone, Catania
Dalla finestra, Porto Empedocle, Agrigento
La teoria degli abbracci, Niscemi, Caltanissetta
Punto a capo, Corleone, Palermo
In Ceterum Dantes Nihil Inde Sperantes, Cammarata, Agrigento
Dafne, Caltagirone, Catania
Aspetto sempre un lieto fine, Palermo Zen, Palermo
La cavalcata, Cammarata, Agrigento
La Biddina, Grotte, Agrigento
Liberami e proteggimi, Calascibetta, Enna
Così tutto è più facile, Rome
Like Penelope, Caltagirone, Catania
Le stanze degli dei, Favara, Agrigento
2019
Di stucco e spray, Palermo
Liotro Identity, Catania
Quando manca l’aria, Livorno
Coscienza astratta, Caltagirone, Catania
Provvidenza, Catania
Man at work, Ragusa Festiwall, Ragusa
Introverso, Acquedolci, Messina
Origine, Rocchetta a Volturno, Isernia
Cura, Norilsk, Russia
Stanza di confine, Farm Cultural Park Favara, Agrigento
Pà Maternità, Palermo
Natura Reversibile, Mascalucia, Catania
Dialoghi impossibili, Mirabella Imbaccari, Catania
Poseidon, Catania
Panta Rhei, Montelupo Fiorentino, Florence
Breath, Matera
Turpe est in patria vivere et patria ignorare, Linguaglossa, Catania
2018
I quattro elementi, Porto Empedocle, Agrigento
Voronoi Extravaganza, Catania
The Big Bang, Giardini Naxos, Messina
Osmotic Euphoria, Aragona, Agrigento
Estensioni Cromatiche traslate, Catania
Ordinedisordine, Riesi, Caltanissetta
Horizon, Sciacca, Agrigento
La conversione del bubbone, Mazara del Vallo, Trapani
Archetype, Floridia, Siracusa
Message in a Pipe, Petrosino, Trapani
Sunrise, Grotte, Agrigento
Abitare, Farm Cultural Park Favara, Agrigento
Rebirth, Villaggio Mosè, Agrigento
Discover, Valverde, Catania
2017
The Beginning, Catania
United Colors Of Librino, Catania
Movimento 6, Catania
Agata, Palazzo della Cultura, Catania
2016
Don’t care, Rome
Clouds, Chiesa del Crocifisso, Caltagirone, Catania
Ellenica, Taormina, Messina
Per ogni pallone che vola c’è un bimbo che piange, Palermo
All you need is love, Catania
WORKS
Ligama, Alle piante non importa, 2021, quartz and spray on canvas, 50×70 cm
Ligama, Falling Hands, 2019, diptych, quartz and spray on canvas, 100×120 cm (each)
