Filippo Salerni Italian, b. 1985

Filippo Salerni was born in Milan on 26 April 1985 and graduated in 2003 from the “Brera” Art School in Milan in the historic headquarters of Via Santa Marta.
Subsequently he enrolled at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, where he attended the Sculpture course for the 2003-2004 academic year. In 2003, together with Andrea “Ravo” Mattoni and Fabio Roncato, he founded “THE BAG – ART FACTORY”, a self-managed artistic laboratory, home to cultural events, exhibitions and a point of reference for many young international artists.
In 2005 he moved to Carrara where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts and contributed to the foundation of the Ponte di Ferro Sculpture Laboratory, which is still an established reality in the field of Carrara sculpture. From 2008 to 2015 he mainly dedicated himself to the creation of sets and artistic installations for the world of fashion in Milan and Paris.
In the Spring of 2013 he created his first personal exhibition of sculptures (“O Heavy Lightness” – Material Equilibrium that Overturns the Rules of Gravity) in the Stone Island space, in Via Savona during the Design Week.
Driven by the desire to learn about new experimental techniques applied to metals in sculpture, in 2016 he began a collaboration with the Lopane restoration workshop for prestigious vintage cars in Milan.
Here, for two years, he learned 360 degrees of techniques relating to sheet metal working and the profession of panel beater, which is less and less widespread nowadays. Since 2018 he has been working in his current laboratory located in the heart of the Milanese Navigli (Alzaia Naviglio Grande 156), collaborating with designers in the creation of metal prototypes, especially in aluminium.
Since 2020 he has dedicated himself full time to the creation of personal sculptures, experimenting and using a vast range of techniques combining the most traditional ones such as marble processing or lost wax casting, with a constant search for creative innovation.
In the creation of his works, Filippo Salerni dedicated special care to studying the methods of working with aluminium, reaching the point of applying the complex techniques, which unfortunately are now almost disused, used by the great Italian panel-beating masters of the 1950s and '60.
For this reason, those who admire the aesthetics of Italian custom-built sports cars, created especially in the first post-war decades, will be able to perceive some subtle manufacturing and aesthetic affinities in the "Salernian" works.
Furthermore, Filippo Salerni, opposing the predominant pseudo-artistic drift represented by the formula: "it doesn't matter why they are interested in your Art; as long as they do it...", offers a clear example of a sober and refined work, in open contrast to the trend. The artisanal practice that he implements is expressed in an aesthetic subtly influenced by "Futurism" and is applied in a distinctly intellectual form.
Proceeding in this direction, he managed to profoundly transform every reference taken from the past, incorporating it into metal and giving it an essential and modern appearance, recovering refined traditional techniques, now accessible to few, such as that of the "sheet metal beater".