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      I do not use art to represent the world.
I use it to learn from Earth

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Stefano Ogliari Badessi (S.O.B.) is an Italian artist whose practice explores the relationship between human beings and the living world through installation, sculpture, and environmental processes.

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Throughout his career, he has exhibited and collaborated with international institutions and projects, including Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, WonderSpaces, and numerous exhibitions across Europe, Asia, and the United States.​

From the very beginning, he has regarded art as a tool for research rather than an end in itself. Each work represents a stage in an ongoing exploration of materials, landscapes, people, and ways of knowing. What began as geographical nomadism has gradually evolved into a deeper journey toward the processes of the living world.

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Today, he lives and works in a forest in the Italian Apennines, where artistic practice intertwines with observation, landscape stewardship, and experimentation. From this experience emerged BOSCONAUTI, a cultural association and an evolving open-air museum project dedicated to artistic research, artist residencies, ecology, and the creation of new relationships between culture and nature.

His practice incorporates knowledge drawn from environmental disciplines and natural building techniques, not as fields separate from art, but as an extension of his artistic language. His works develop through long-term processes, transformation, and biological change, where the landscape is no longer a backdrop but an active participant in the work.

His artworks become the distilled outcome of lived experience, inviting viewers to encounter the living world as a space of relationship, transformation, and possibility..

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      ARTIST STATEMENT 

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I do not use art to represent the world. I use the act of making art to learn how to inhabit it.

For me, art is a tool for exploration.

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Every project begins with listening and observation. I am interested in understanding how a place can transform my perspective, and how I can enter into a relationship with it without trying to dominate it.

For many years, this exploration took the form of travel. Today, that nomadism no longer means constant movement, but the willingness to be transformed by the place I inhabit. I have learned that it is possible to remain nomadic while staying in one place, as long as curiosity and exploration never come to an end.

Every place has its own language. Every material holds a memory. My work begins when I learn to listen to them.

I never choose materials in advance; the place suggests them. The plastic of large cities, objects collected during my travels, the wood, earth, stone, and clay of the forest are far more than materials—they are collaborators. Every environment shapes a different aesthetic and opens new questions.

Over time, my imagination has also evolved. Dreams, once at the center of my practice, have gradually given way to animals, bestiaries, myths, and archetypal forms that seem to emerge from the living world itself. My works inhabit the threshold where reality and imagination continue to meet.

This vision gave rise to BOSCONAUTI, an artistic and cultural project rooted in a forest in the Italian Apennines. It is a place for artistic experimentation, residencies, education, and research, where art, ecology, and landscape stewardship coexist. Practices such as natural building, forest management, and cultivation are not a departure from art, but an expansion of its language.

Every artwork is the distilled result of a lived experience. Before sharing something with the public, I feel the need to experience it myself, allowing time, listening, and place to transform me.

Perhaps my work is not about creating objects, but about building relationships: between people and landscapes, imagination and matter, culture and the living world.

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Stefano Ogliari Badessi (b. 1984 Crema, Italy)

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Solo Exhibitions

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2021

Genesis, SanBrite, Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

2019

Special Basel Project, The Sagamore Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

WONDERLAND, Museo Civico Cremasco, Crema, Italy

A Tribe from Wonderland, The CAMP Gallery (formerly The Directed Art Modern), Miami, Florida, USA

2017

Inside, C.A.R.M.E., Brescia, Italy

2016

Going Back Home, Laboratory Art Residence, Spokane, Washington, USA

2014

Small Is Beautiful, Leo Gallery, Shanghai, China

Stendhal's Syndrome, Solo Exhibition, Hong Kong

2013

NONSENSE, Basement 6, Shanghai, China

2003

Bonaldi's Park, Crema, Italy

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Group Exhibitions

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2023

Bergamo Brescia 2023, Palazzo Martinengo, Brescia, Italy

2022

SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York City, New York, USA

SCOPE Art Show, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

WonderSpaces, Austin, Texas, USA

2021

Superamenti, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy

Sei esattamente dove dovresti essere, Miniartextil, Como, Italy

WonderSpaces, Austin, Texas, USA

2020

SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York City, New York, USA

WonderSpaces, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

The Magnetic Project, Shanghai, China

Obscured Objects, Artsy Online Exclusive with The CAMP Gallery

2019

10th Biennale di Soncino, Soncino, Italy

2018

WonderSpaces, San Diego, California, USA

International Kite Festival – Cervia Volante, Cervia, Italy

LajoneArt, Castello di Lajone, Italy

2017

OPENART Art Biennale, Örebro, Sweden

Voyages Extraordinaires, Palazzo Lombardia, Milan, Italy

6MATERIA, Museo Civico Cremasco, Crema, Italy

Brescia Repubblica Elettronica Festival, Brescia, Italy

9th Biennale di Soncino, Soncino, Italy

2016

Art Basel Miami – Satellite Exhibition with The CAMP Gallery (formerly The Directed Art Modern), Miami, Florida, USA

Facce di Terra, Castello di San Pietro, Italy

2015

8th Biennale di Soncino, Soncino, Italy

56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Special Press Event by Swatch, Venice, Italy

INchiostro, for Expo Milano by Zoe, Trieste, Italy

2014

Faces & Trace, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China

Pop-up Secret, ArtLabor Gallery, Shanghai, China

Tamashima's Art: Between Japan and Italy, Okayama, Japan

2013

Jamais Vu – Morfologie di un Principio, Palazzo Orsoline, Fidenza, Italy

Grand Opening, Little Victories Gallery, M50, Shanghai, China

The Beatitudes, Treviglio, Italy

2012

7 Words for the Cremona Cathedral, Cremona, Italy

Artist Take Care Woman, Crema, Italy

Vogue Fashion's Night Out, Milan, Italy

2011

6th Biennale di Soncino, Soncino, Italy

Q3 – Selected Artist, Crema, Italy

2007

Finalist, Targetti Light Art Prize, Florence, Italy

Artisti Associati, Crema, Italy

2006

1st Stone Sculpture Symposium, Casalasco, Italy

2005

Stone Sculpture Symposium for Lions Club, Lodi, Italy

International Stone Sculpture Symposium, Castiglione Messer Marino, Italy

2004

Morphè – 3rd Sculpture Symposium, Crema, Italy

Art-Shot, Museo Sant'Agostino, Crema, Italy

Award Sculpture, Montefiore Conca, Rimini, Italy

European Week of Culture, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

2003

1st Sculpture Symposium, Cremona, Italy

Stone Sculpture Symposium, Rapino, Italy

2002

Morphè – 2nd Sculpture Symposium, Crema, Italy

2nd Stone Sculpture Symposium, Rapino, Italy

Twenty-Five Hours Art, Crema, Italy

2001

Stone Sculpture Symposium, Montecatini Val di Cecina, Italy

Stone Sculpture Symposium, Rapino, Italy

Stone Sculpture Symposium, Ponsacco, Italy

2000

Morphè – Sculpture Symposium, Crema, Italy

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Workshops, Participatory Art & Educational Programs

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2026

Monster in Earth – Workshop on the construction of a large-scale clay and straw sculpture using the quincha technique. BOSCONAUTI, Grondona, Italy.

Arte in Terra – Land Art workshop for Politiche Giovanili, in collaboration with Teatro Incolto, Aosta, Italy.

2025

As Above, So Below – Construction of The Eagle sculpture, in collaboration with Associazione Chakaruna, Grondona, Italy.

Special Land Art Edition – Workshop in collaboration with Elementa Teatro, Alpe Rebelle, Aosta, Italy.

2024

Rainbow Bridge – Land Art workshop for Festa per la Madre Terra, in collaboration with Grondona Bio, Grondona, Italy.

2023

Fantasy Clay Oven – Workshop on the construction of a sculptural clay-and-straw oven, BOSCONAUTI, Grondona, Italy.

2021

Superamenti – Artistic Practices for a New Present – Workshop in collaboration with Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy.

Hannanaka – Collaborative workshop for the construction of The Bear sculpture, in collaboration with Associazione Chakaruna, Grondona, Italy.

2014–2015

Creativity and Art Installation with Recycled Materials – Educational workshop series at YK Pao School, Shanghai, China.

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Special Projects & Collaborations

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2019

Wonderlust, The Sagamore Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

2018

Time to Art, Swatch, Milan, Italy

2017

Chinese Dream, EAST Miami Hotel, with The CAMP Gallery, Swire Group, Miami, Florida, USA

2015

Lipsticks (Performance), ArtCosmetic, Hong Kong

#NothingIsForever, Extreme Project with Swatch and Freeride World Tour, Verbier, Switzerland

2013

Window Display for Aspesi, in collaboration with Juan Salvadó, Via Monte Napoleone, Milan, Italy

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Art Fairs

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2023

FOCUS Art Fair, New York City, USA

2022

SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York City, USA

SCOPE Art Show, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

2020

SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York City, USA

2019

SCOPE Art Show, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

Art Wynwood, Miami, Florida, USA

Affordable Art Fair, Superstudio, Milan, Italy

2018

SCOPE Art Show, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

Palm Beach Art Fair, with D.A.M., West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

Antibes Art Fair, Cannes, France

2017

SCOPE Art Show, Miami Beach, Florida, USA

The Others Art Fair, with CultRise, Turin, Italy