Giovanni Kronenberg (Milan, 1974) lives and works in Milan.
His work comprises essentially sculptures and drawings: unusual or rare objects and natural artifacts – like rocks and stones, minerals and precious crystals, horns, bones, furs, sea sponge and ostrich eggs – which the artist defines as “not worn out by gazes”. Often collectible objects, Kronenberg operates on them with minimal insertions and transformations that bring together distant times, often unreachable. Through actions like twisting, occluding, replacement, and superimposition – but also, on the contrary, using slight and temporary interventions – the artist crafts unexpected objects with an eccentric, magnetic, and at the same time disturbing presence. The creation of a “combinatorial grammar” is the operation at the core of his work: a language that effects the slow sedimentation of the evocative qualities inherent in objects, on their subsequent alteration, through forms of intrusion. This relation between objects and reality, mostly ambiguous and elusive, also represents a key to Kronenberg’s drawings. Here, the image, suspended in an abstract dimension, gives rise to a space without references that seems to translate the figure’s presence into a kind of epiphany or apparition.
Among his recent solo shows: Giovanni Kronenberg, solo show, with a critical text by Antonio Grulli, Rizzuto Gallery, Palermo (2023); Giovanni Kronenberg – Richard Nonas, with a critical text by Riccardo Venturi. In collaboration with P420, Bologna | z2o project, Rome (2022); Palio della Giostra della Quintana, Foligno (2021); Quartz, Turin (2020); Renata Fabbri Arte Contemporanea, with a critical text by Davide Ferri, Milan (2020); z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome (2019); Disegni/Drawings, curated by João Mourao and Luis Silva, Artissima, Turin (2019); Untitled, LocaleDue, Bologna, Italy (2019); Renata Fabbri Arte Contemporanea, with a critical text by S. Menegoi, Milan (2017); z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, with a critical text by A. Rabottini, Rome (2016). Among his recent group shows: Carta Bianca una nuova storia, curated by Valentina Ciarallo, Museo Civico Villa La Rinchiostra, Massa (2021); La Madonna di Foligno, il meteorite e il puntctum. Come rileggere un capolavoro, curated by Marta Silvi, Museo Diocesano, Foligno (2021); Sharing Our Dreamin Room, z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome (2020); We can work it out, Renata Fabbri, Milan (2020); Traces, curated by Marina Dacci, Civic Medieval Museum, Bologna (2020); Taxidermy, curated by L. Petrucci e B. Reggio, Rome (2018); KIZART. La videoarte per i bambini, curated by R. Frascarelli, MAXXI, Rome (2018); Take me a question, public art project, curated by A. Lerda, Caraglio (CN) (2018); Solo Figli, Padiglione Esprit Nouveau, Bologna (2017); In the stillness of the landscape room, curated by A. Roma, z2o Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome (2016).