Artists

Francesco Clemente, born 1952 in Naples, Italy, is a contemporary artist known for his dreamlike paintings based on esoteric themes of sexuality and spirituality. He studied architecture at the University of Rome in 1970 and soon after moved to India. While there, he collaborated with local craftsmen and painters which greatly influenced the trajectory of his artistic production. He later relocated to New York in 1981, where he began collaborating with artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.

Working across oil painting, installation, and watercolor, Clemente’s works are characterized by their formal experimentation with symbols, portraiture, and the human figure. He utilized his travels and frequent collaborations to collect images and references from world traditions and connect them with the emotions from present-day, and common experiences. Clemente's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including traveling retrospectives of his pastels. His works on paper were the focus of a full retrospective organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1990, which traveled within the United States and to the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1991). His works on paper have been shown in exhibitions organized by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.