Images
Luca Massaro
Reggio Emilia. Lives and works in Milan.
Luca Massaro is an artist, photographer, and founder of Gluqbar, Milan. After graduating in Foreign Literature and Linguistics from the Catholic University of Milan and the University Sorbonne Paris IV, he began his research on the intersection of photography and words, on the invisible space that separates an image from its caption, in the different forms of production, translation and transmission. Through photographs, words, installations, artist's books, and through manipulative techniques borrowed from the urban and online mediascape (such as the proliferation of backlit devices, the repetition of graphic logos and leitmotifs), Massaro's work is a portrait of the conflicting hybridisation of icon-texts today, questioning the cultural, political and social value of images.
His first work Foto Grafia was published by Danilo Montanari Editore and exhibited at F4 Festival, Matèria Gallery, T14 Contemporary, Fondazione Benetton (Premio Nascimben U25) and presented at Viasaterna on the occasion of the group exhibition 2016: On New Italian Photography. The subsequent project Vietnik was shown in solo exhibitions at Viasaterna, Spazio Duale, Metronom, Centrale Festivale and group exhibitions at Fotografia Europea, Museo MAR, Chiostri di San Domenico, Fonderia Napoleonica, Peckham 24, Minimum and Nexst Turin. Vietnik was also selected among the finalists of Portfolio Review Düsseldorf, Cosmos PDF Award Rencontres d'Arles, GAI, Premio Fabbri and Giovane Fotografia Italiana. The book of the same name was published by Gluqbar Editions in April 2019 thanks to the Energie Diffuse grant, presented by Printed Matter at NYABF 2019 and selected by Federica Chiocchetti in the Aperture PhotoBookReview Ideal Bookshelf.
Massaro's projects have been published by international publishers (FOAM, Aperture, Purple, M Le Monde, i,D, Danilo Montanari, Skinnerboox, Art Paper Editions) and exhibited in group and solo exhibitions: Italian Institute of Culture (Montevideo), Viasaterna (Milan), MAR Museum (Ravenna), Museo Degli Eremitani (Padua), BACO Contemporary Art (Bergamo), Peckham 24 (London), Matèria (Rome), Printed Matter (New York), Photo Weekend (Dusseldorf), Triennale (Milan), Palazzo Del Governatore (Parma European Capital of Culture), Kunsthaus Pasquart (Biel, Switzerland), Fotografia Europea Festival (Reggio Emilia). His work is present in private and institutional collections, such as Regione Emilia-Romagna, Fondazione Benetton (Premio Nascimben), Istituto Italiano di Cultura Montevideo and recently won the public commission Triennale Museum x Gibellina Images.
Since 2019, he has been represented by Viasaterna, with whom he presented his second exhibition Duetto, consisting of images and sculptures from the book Dizionario Vol.1 (2012-2022) published in February 2023 by Art Paper Editions, the first in a series of encyclopedic collections of words photographed by the artist over the last 10 years nominated as one of the best photo books of 2023 by i-D UK, Photo España and Les Rencontres d'Arles. In 2025, he took part in the group exhibition Transizioni. Dal fotografico alle immagini ibride, curated by Mauro Zanchi in collaboration with Aurelio Andrighetto, at Viasaterna Gallery.
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