Norberto Spina (1995) is an artist living and working in London where he is currently attending the final year at the Royal Academy Schools. He grew up in Milan where he completed a BA in Painting at the Brera Academy.
His practice moves from an autobiographical and collective memory that starts from the retrieval of archive images, old family photographs, moments of daily life and historical and religious iconographies of Italian popular culture, all reworked and superimposed through a pictorial gesture that moves away from any kind of precise definition and restitution. Like fragmented memories that are difficult to visualise with clarity, what manifests itself on the canvas is an imagery given by oblique lashings, sharp and material strokes of oil, acrylic and marker pen that build and at the same time conceal the image in a continuous act of formulation and negation. What remains at the end of this long process of layering, appearing as a wounded image precisely because it has been pushed to its limits.
Text by Federico Montagna
Education
2021-2024, Post graduate course, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2014-2017, Bachelor of Arts in painting, Brera Academy, Milan
2016-2017, Erasmus, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Exhibitions
2024
‘After Reminiscence’ group show, Cassina Project, Milan
‘Field of difference‘ group show, Palmer Gallery, London
2023
‘Vanitas’ group show, Night Cafè Gallery, London
‘Premiums: Interim Projects 2023’ group show, Royal Accademy of Arts, London
‘Look mum non hands’ group show, French Place, London
2022
‘Y1 Royal Academy School Show’ group show, Sadie Coles HQ store, London
‘A path with heart’ group show, The Split Gallery, London
2021
‘Impronte’ group show, Fondazione Giacomo Lercaro, Bologna
2020
Residency ‘Impronte’ Fondazione Giacomo Lercaro, Bologna
Residency ‘Percorsi di riavvicinamento’ Sanctuary of La Verna, Tuscany
‘Frammenti di storia’ group show with the winners of San Fedele Prize, Fondazione San Fedele, Milan
2019
Third prize in the ‘Premio San Fedele’ and winner of the Martini Inernational Award, Fondazione San Fedele, Milan
‘Poetiche a Confornto’ group show MO.CA, Brescia
Residency at the San Fedele Foundation, Milan
2018
October, group show with the winners ‘X Premio Nocivelli’, Academy of Fine Arts, Brescia
Second prize ‘X Premio Nocivelli’ Verolanuva