Jonathan Vivacqua

The research behind Jonathan Vivacqua’s (1986, Erba, CO, Italy) rigorous and coherent sculptural practice is based on a physical and mental relationship with the material. His work often stems from simple gestures largely inspired by manual labor and construction work that become tools for questioning space, void, balance, and fragility. Vivacqua builds essential and unstable structures that seem to oscillate between completion and collapse, between form and fragment.

His practice moves along the boundary between construction and deconstruction, permanence and transformation. The works do not impose a narrative but instead open ambiguous perceptual spaces, where the eye is continuously forced to renegotiate form and meaning. An interest in sculpture as a process rather than a finished object runs through his entire body of work, along with a strong focus on context, landscape, architecture, and the relationship between solid and void. Over the years, Vivacqua has presented numerous solo exhibitions, including:

MATRICIA at Walden Naturae Gallery a Garzon, Punta del Este, Uruguay, OILVOID at Contemporary Cluster Gallery in Rome (2024), UNTITLED at Galleria Lampo in Milan (2023), and CENTO, a permanent sculpture created during a residency at Lacasapark in New York (2023). He has also created permanent works in public spaces such as POLLINE in Val d’Intelvi (2022), part of the Marks project (Regione Lombardia and Canton Ticino), and LAYER AND LAYER AND LAYER for the Cittadella degli Archivi in Milan (2021). Earlier notable projects include LAVORO INUTILE (White Noise Gallery, Rome, 2020), OCEAN (The Flat, Milan, 2018), and DOMULA (Errorist, Milan, 2017).

In parallel, he has taken part in many group exhibitions in both institutional and independent settings, such as IL PESO DEL VUOTO at the Marec Museum (2024), WE LOVE SCIENCE at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2023), GODAI at the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona (2022), and ORA at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See (2021). His work has also been exhibited in South Korea and the United States, in both museum and experimental spaces, with particular attention to site-specific projects.

Many of his monumental permanent sculptures are part of prestigious private collections around the world.