BIOGRAPHY OF ANDREA BENETTI

Andrea Benetti was born in Bologna in 1964. He is a painter, photographer, and designer. In 2006, he drafted the Manifesto of Neo-Cave Art, which he presented in 2009 at the 53rd Venice Biennale, hosted by Ca' Foscari University. The manifesto is inspired by the origins of art, specifically the cave paintings of prehistory. Andrea Benetti's artistic vision transfigures, quotes, reinvents, and plays with the ideas and forms of cave painting, creating an imaginative bridge between contemporary art and its primal origins.

For over a decade, the Bolognese artist has collaborated on projects with various Italian and international universities, including Johns Hopkins University and the universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Bari, Roma Tre, Lecce, and Bergamo. Some of these institutions have incorporated Andrea Benetti's Neo-Cave Art into their research programs.

His works have been acquired by museums and institutional collections worldwide, including the United Nations, the Quirinale (the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic), the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the Vatican, and several Italian embassies abroad. In recent years, Andrea Benetti has been received by the Quirinale, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Vatican. He met Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and Pope Francis in 2014.

Numerous university professors and prominent art critics have written about his work, actively participating in projects conceived by the Emilian artist. For many years, Andrea Benetti has been featured in several encyclopedias, including Treccani and De Agostini (the most significant Italian encyclopedias), the WikiArt encyclopedia (the world's leading art encyclopedia), and Wikipedia, where his entry is translated into thirty languages.

In 2020, Andrea Benetti was awarded the 49th Nettuno d'Oro, the oldest and most prestigious artistic prize in the city of Bologna.

Andrea Benetti's recent exhibitions have been held in Bologna at the Legislative Assembly of the Emilia Romagna Region, in London at the Oxo Tower, in Venice at Palazzo Zaguri, and in Milan at the ArTheoria Warehouse space.