Andrea Rugarli

Andrea Rugarli, born in Milan in 1993, is an Italian artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

In 2013 he moved to Providence, where he graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2017, majoring in painting. He is a recipient of the Florence Leif Award, the Nocivelli Prize, the Frase Got Talent Prize. His work has been exhibited internationally in multiple galleries and venues including the Spoleto Art Festival, Nonfinito Gallery, Museo Diocesano Francesco Gonzaga, Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, Space 776 Gallery, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Gelman Gallery and Trade Pop-Up Gallery.

His paintings consist of re-purposed photographs of Tommaso G. who is Andrea’s ubiquitous subject and personal icon. As such, the work embraces this biographical fragment of social media idolatry to open up the contradictory dialogue between virtual identity and sexuality, sameness and difference, fetishization and embodiment.