Lorenzo Modica (1988, Rome) is a visual artist and currently professor of Drawing and Painting at the John Cabot University in Rome.
Modica has obtained undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, and a MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London.
Known for process-based paintings that move between abstraction and figuration, Modica combines traditional formal concerns – such as explorations of color, shape, surface and line, play with figure and ground, scale, and bidimensionality — with approaches from other media (drawing, cartoons, collage, advertising) by introducing qualities such as awkwardness, self-deprecation, affect and doubt into her practice. His work can be contextualised in what art critic Raphael Rubinstein called provisional painting in regard to artists such as Richard Tuttle, Mary Heilmann and Raoul De Keyser. That painting features “works that look casual, dashed-off, tentative, unfinished or self-cancelling” by artists who “deliberately turn away from ‘strong’ painting for something that seems to constantly risk failure or inconsequence”.
Modica has been artist in residence at MAMbo, Bologna; VIR Viafarini-in-residence, Milan, and Colart Residency Program, London, and exhibited in Italian and international institutions such as: MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome; Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome; Fondazione smART - polo per l'arte, Rome; Institut français Centre Saint Louis, Rome; Galleria il Ponte, Florence; Galleria Studio G7, Bologna; Galleria Lunetta 11, Turin; Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice; ASC Gallery, London; Spaceship/Dungeon/Zoo, London; Galeria Dìnamo, Porto; Inex Gallery, Belgrade.
Lorenzo Modica (1988, Rome) is a visual artist and currently professor of Drawing and Painting at the John Cabot University in Rome.
Modica obtained undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, and a MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London.
Known for process-based paintings that move between abstraction and figuration, Modica combines traditional formal concerns – such as explorations of color, shape, surface and line, play with figure and ground, scale, and bidimensionality — with approaches from other media (drawing, cartoons, collage, advertising) by introducing qualities such as awkwardness, self-deprecation, affect and doubt into his practice. His work can be contextualised in what art critic Raphael Rubinstein called provisional painting in regard to artists such as Richard Tuttle, Mary Heilmann and Raoul De Keyser. That painting features “works that look casual, dashed-off, tentative, unfinished or self-cancelling” by artists who “deliberately turn away from ‘strong’ painting for something that seems to constantly risk failure or inconsequence”.
Modica has been artist in residence at MAMbo, Bologna; VIR Viafarini-in-residence, Milan, and Colart Residency Program, London, and exhibited in Italian and international institutions such as: MACRO Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome; Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome; Fondazione smART - polo per l'arte, Rome; Institut français Centre Saint Louis, Rome; Galleria il Ponte, Florence; Galleria Studio G7, Bologna; Galleria Lunetta 11, Turin; Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice; ASC Gallery, London; Spaceship/Dungeon/Zoo, London; Galeria Dìnamo, Porto; Inex Gallery, Belgrade
Lorenzo Modica
(b. 1988, Rome - IT)
Education
2022 MFA, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London
2015 MA, Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, Rome
2012 BA, Academy of Fine Arts or Rome, Rome
Solo Shows
2025 The unfolding of itself, Galleria Eugenia Delfini, Rome (upcoming)
2025 Miart, Emergent Section, Milan, booth Galleria Eugenia Delfini
2024 Dritto e Rovescio, Fondazione Aldega, Amelia (TR)
2021 Hidden in Plain Sight, curated by Davide Ferri, Galleria Studio G7, Bologna
2021 Only Good People Don't Smell, Saints Maybe Smell Good, KH Lab, Rome
2018 B e C, curated by Sarah Linford, deconsecrated church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Mantova
2016 Il Cielo è di un azzurro cielo intenso, Galleria Arte e Pensieri, Rome
2015 13 Days, exhibition / thesis project, supervisor Cecilia Casorati, INEX Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia
Group Shows
2024 The Wind Blows Where it Wants, curated by Pau Masclans, PuntWG, Amsterdam
2024 Great Expectations, curated by Giulia Gaibisso, SPAZIOMENSA, Rome
2022 Graduate Show, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London
2022 L’Invenzione della giovinezza, curated by Sarah Linford, smART Polo per L’Arte, Rome
2021 The Castle of Crossed Destinies, curated by Giulio Verago, Galeria Dìnamo, Porto
2021 Artefici del Nostro Tempo, collateral event of the Venice Biennale, Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice
2021 Masterless Eye, curated by Gino Bosa, Yudik One, Brescia
2020 Slade Runner, ASC gallery, London
2019 Spaceship/Dungeon/Zoo, organized by Alvaro Barrington, Peter Davies and Alastair Mackinven, Studio Alvaro Barrington, London
2018 Ieri Oggi Domani, organized by Professors Cecilia Casorati and Gabriele Simongini, Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati
2018 Fenêtre jaune cadmium, curated by Sarah Linford, Institut français Centre Saint Louis, Rome
2018 Now and Forward - Emerging Artists in Rome, curated by Shara Wasserman and Tiziana Musi, Temple University Rome Gallery of Art, Rome
2016 A> Rete Residency Exhibition, Galleria il Ponte, Florence
2015 3 + 2, curated by Donatella Landi, Interno 14 - Italian Association of Architecture and Criticism, Rome
2015 Uscite di Emergenza, curated by Whart with the supervision of Cecilia Casorati, MACRO, Rome
2015 Myths. Students / Artists / Teachers. A process of exchange, curated by Maria Rosa Sossai and Miroslaw Balka, Pastificio Cerere Foundation, Rome
Collections
MAMbo, Bologna, IT
Aldega Collection, Amelia, IT
LZ Collection, Milan, IT
Private Collections in Italy, France, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States
Awards
2024 Combat Prize (finalist), Museo Fattori, Livorno
2022 Combat Prize (finalist), Museo Fattori, Livorno
2021 Prize Artefici del Nostro Tempo (winner), collateral event of the Venice Biennale, Municipality of Venice, Venice
Residencies & Workshop
2023 Nuovo Forno del Pane Outdoor Edition, curated by Lorenzo Balbi, Caterina Molteni, Sabrina Samorì and Giulia Pezzoli, MAMbo, Bologna
2021 The Fine Art Collective - Colart Residency Program, London
2020-2021 September - February, VIR Viafarini-in-residence, Milan
2017 Hanji paper international workshop, Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, Rome
2016 A> Rete Residency, Galleria Il Ponte, Florence
2014 Myths. Students / Artists / Teachers. A process of exchange, mentor Miroslaw Balka, organised by the Polish Cultural Institute in Rome, residency in Warsaw and Rome
2013 Foundry Workshop, UGR, Granada, Spain
2011 Either Etching Workshop, Atelier Contrepoint, Paris
Teaching & Artist Talks
2025 Glass Action / Book Presentation, IUNO, Rome
2022-ongoing Studio Art Lecturer Professor (Drawing, Painting, 3D Practices, Color Theory), John Cabot University, Rome
2023 Teaching Assistant (Painting, Sculpture, Drawing), Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, Rome
2022 Guest Tutor, Camberwell College of Arts (UAL), London
2022 Guest tutor MFA, RUFA, Rome
2021 Teaching Assistant, UCL East Schools programme, Slade150 Printmaking school project, London
2020 Guest tutor MFA, RUFA, Rome
2019 Painting, Drawing, and Theatre Practices Workshop in Mental Health, Villa Letizia / Villa Madre Chiara Ricci, Rome
2018 Monotype Workshop, State Institute of Art "Giulio Romano", Mantua
2018 Monotype Workshop, Scuole Dell'Infanzia Comunali Strozzi Valenti, Mantua
2018 Painting, Drawing Workshop in Mental Health, Santa Maria della Pietà, Rome
2016-2019 Teaching Assistant (Painting, Paper Techniques), Academy of Fine Arts of Rome, Rome
Artist Talks: IUNO, Rome (2025 upcoming); RUFA University - MFA program, Rome (2024); John Cabot University - BA Art History, Rome (2023); University of Bologna, Department of Visual Arts (2023); Tyler-Temple University - MFA program, Rome (2018).
Artist Books
2025 Glass Action, Dito Publishing, Roma
2024 Ghafunken, self published, Roma
2022 Peli Notevoli, Edizioni Esperidi, Lecce
2021 KH Zine Only Good People Don't Smell, Saints Maybe Smell Good, self published, Roma
2021 Mare Madre, self published, Roma
2018 BeC, self published, Roma
Bibliography
2025 Arte Mondadori n. 620 aprile 2025 pag.75 “Dieci artisti da guardare con particolare attenzione"
2024 Davide Ferri in Combat Prize Catalog 2024
2024 Studio visit by Nicolas Martino for Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma
2024 Enrico Camprini, Different Negation. Notes on the Painting of Lorenzo Modica, text in the catalog, Dritto e Rovescio, Published by the Aldega Foundation, Amelia
2024 Marco Scotti, Doing Things Together. Bologna, between community and spaces of freedom, Quaderni d’arte italiana #5, Fondazione La Quadriennale di Roma, Rome
2023 Caterina Molteni, text in the catalog, Nuovo Forno del Pane Outdoor Edition, MAMbo, Bologna
2022 Leonardo Regano, presentation text of the artist’s book Peli Notevoli, Edizioni Esperidi, Lecce
2021 Davide Ferri, text for the exhibition Hidden in Plain Sight, Galleria Studio G7, Bologna
2021 Enrico Camprini, At the threshold of the image. Franco Guerzoni and Lorenzo Modica on show in Bologna, Artribune
2021 Ruggero Savinio, for the self-published poster/leaflet for the exhibition Only Good People Don't Smell, Saints Maybe Smell Good, KH Lab, Rome
2021 Beatrice Benella Interview, KH Lab opens in Rome: starting with Lorenzo Modica, Exibart
2020 Sarah Linford, Devin Kovach, Force Fields. Rome and Contemporary Printmaking, edited by Sarah Linford and Devin Kovach, Temple University Press, Philadelphia and Palombi Editori, Rome
2018 Sarah Linford, Dorothea Dietrich, Donatella Saroli, for the catalogue B and C, or On Private Language, (Italian-English monographic catalogue), edited and with a text by Sarah Linford, Published by the Municipality of Mantua, Mantova
Selected Artworks
