Franco Accursio Gulino
Franco Accursio Gulino was born in Sciacca in 1949. After working in Milan and Ferrara between 1970 and 1973, he now lives and works in Sciacca and Rome. Gulino’s work has attracted significant attention and interest. The artist has devoted a series of works to the historical event of Graham's Island, known as Ferdinandea, which he interprets as a thinking entity that chooses freedom and rejects human violence and dullness, eventually sinking. An entire page of the Herald Tribune was dedicated to his work in 2000. In 2001, the art video Ferdinandea: l’isola pensante was filmed, a co-production of the Municipality of Palermo and Turin’s theatre Fahrenheit 451, and was presented in 2006 at the International Festival of Cinema and Documentary at Palazzo Venezia in Rome. Between 1970 and 1990, Gulino received numerous awards and prizes and participated in both solo and group exhibitions. In 1997, a solo exhibition entitled Design and Embalmer was organized in New York and presented by Gioacchino Lanza Tommasi at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in “La Guardia Hall” Art Gallery. On the catalogue, published by Sellerio, he contributed a text for the artist Mr. Robert Viscusi.
The following year, he exhibited his solo works at The Art Gallery at Brooklyn College and at the Allen Priebe Gallery in Wisconsin. In 1999, the solo exhibition In/Out was organized by “La Centrale dell’Arte” of Rome at the Cantieri Culturali della Zisa in Palermo.In 2003, he held the solo exhibition In medio stat virtus, organized by the Fondazione Orestiadi of Gibellina, with an introduction by Mr. Gianluca Ranzi.
On 28 April 2011, a solo exhibition entitled Camminanti was inaugurated in Nairobi, Kenya, exploring the stories of migrants, stowaways, and people on the move experiencing change. The catalogue was published by Sellerio, with an introduction by art historian Mr. Carlo Bertelli.
Since the early 1990s, Gulino has been producing a cycle of over 150 works dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini. Some of these works were projected in the show P. P. P. Siamo tutti in pericolo, directed by Daniele Salvo (Teatro Stabile, Turin, 2007; Teatro dei Filodrammatici, Milan, 2007; Teatro Vascello, Rome, 2015; Teatro Franco Parenti, Milan, 2015).
In 2012, he exhibited in Rome in the collective exhibition PPP. Una polemica inversa. Omaggio a Pier Paolo Pasolini, a contemporary art exhibition inspired by the writer’s poetry, organized by Flavio Alivernini. The catalogue, published by Fandango Libri, included a review by Achille Bonito Oliva.
In 2014, the solo exhibition Clandestini. Passano all’asta i sogni, curated by Laura Anello, opened at Palazzo Steri (a former prison of the Spanish Inquisition) in Palermo.
In 2015, he was invited to participate in the exhibition Memorie. Ritratto d’artista, curated by Paola Nicita and held at Palazzo Ziino (GAM) in Palermo. The catalogue was published by Caracol, with an introduction by Paolo Flores d’Arcais. In the same year, he held the solo exhibition Hecce Homo, organized by the Agorà Gallery in Palermo and presented by Stefania Gioacchino. In 2015 and 2016, a solo exhibition of his work was held at Verdura Resort Sicily – Rocco Forte Hotels.
In June 2016, he participated in the exhibition Pasolini. Un poeta, held at La Dogana in Milan. In September 2016, he exhibited in the exhibition Per raccontare l’arte at Spazio Agorà in Palermo. In October 2016, the solo exhibition Passano all’asta i sogni, organized by Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea Horti Lamiani, opened in Rome. From February to March 2017, he took part in the collective exhibition Imago Mundi. Rotte Mediterranee, organized by Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo at Cantieri Culturali Alla Zisa – Spazio Zac – Zona Arti Contemporanee. In May, he participated in the collective exhibition Scorrimento veloce, presented by the Fondazione Orestiadi in Gibellina. In 2018, a new exhibition entitled Black Friday was held at Spazio Contemporaneo Agorà and Spazio Edicola in Palermo. This exhibition was included in the main program of Palermo Capitale Italiana della Cultura.
In 2019, he exhibited at the 1st Biennial of St. Moritz (Switzerland) at the Paracelsus Forum, curated by Prof. Egidio Maria Eleuteri and art historians Martina D’Ambrosio and Elisa Susanna. In the same year, he also exhibited at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte-Carlo. From 7 December 2019 to 12 January 2020, he held the solo exhibition Corde tese e passi, curated by the Orestiadi Foundation of Gibellina, at the Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palermo (Palazzo Belmonte Riso). In 2021, he was invited to exhibit at the London START Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery and in the permanent collection of the MAC – Museum of Contemporary Art Ludovico Corrao in Gibellina. Since June 2021, his work Passano all’asta i sogni has been held at the Quirinale – the Presidential Palace of the Italian Republic. From October 2021 to January 2022, on the occasion of the extraordinary opening of the church of Santa Maria dello Spasimo in Sciacca, he held the solo exhibition Domus, as part of the Le Vie dei Tesori festival. In 2023, he held the solo exhibition Pier Paolo Pasolini: “Riempire l’assenza di un volto”, curated by Anna Terminello and Laura Anello, at the Italian Cultural Institute and the Italian School of Athens.
Several documentaries and art videos have been produced on the artist, including How Many Individuals Are You? and Portrait of the Artist. Franco Accursio Gulino, directed by Austrian filmmaker Johanna Tschautscher. The latter won the International Film Festival on European Art, ART & FILM 2006-TELC in Prague and has been presented in several European cities. Gulino’s literary and pictorial work has also inspired short films written and directed by the artist himself. His works are exhibited in national and international exhibitions and are included in numerous public and private collections.
