Gilberto Zorio

1944, Andorno Micca (Biella), Italy

Gilberto Zorio is one of the historic figures of Arte Povera, the movement that revolutionised Italian contemporary art starting in the late 1960s. His work stands out for its use of industrial and chemical materials - such as copper, lead, cobalt chloride, phosphorus - and for a constant tension between energy, transformation and instability.

Zorio conceives the artwork as a field of forces in continuous evolution, often crossed by archetypal symbols such as the alembic, the star or the spear, embodying physical and spiritual tensions. His installations, sculptures and drawings are visual alchemies in which matter and energy become aesthetic and conceptual elements.

His work is held in numerous international museums and collections, from the Centre Pompidou to Tate Modern, and continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary research.

Gilberto Zorio

Stella Cangiante, cobalt chloride, phosphorus, acrylic on cardboard, 2006
72x103 cm

In Stella Cangiante (Shifting Star), Gilberto Zorio revisits one of his recurring symbols: the star, an archetypal figure and energetic sign. Traced on a dark, vibrant, almost volcanic surface, the star is not static: it changes, reflects, activates with light and humidity thanks to sensitive materials such as cobalt chloride and phosphorus, evoking chemical processes and natural transformations.
The work is not only to be looked at, but to be perceived over time, like a living organism. The surface seems etched by an inner tension: the luminous form of the star emerges from the dark background like a signal, an orientation, a latent force.
In this contrast between light and dark, between form and matter, the heart of Zorio's poetics is revealed: art as an alchemical process, as visual and spiritual energy. Stella Cangiante is a pulsing presence, a silent emblem of transformation.