Ernesto Tatafiore, psychiatrist, painter, draughtsman, and object artist, was born in 1943 in Naples where he still lives and works. His work is some of the most significant and complex of Italian contemporary art, and besides painting it also includes drawing, graphics, and sculpture. Tatafiore conceived the exhibition Verso specifically for the rooms of the loft space at Galerie Levy. The exhibition primarily comprises large-format paintings and their sketches, all of which he created this year.

Tatafiore’s paintings seem fragmentary and open, and snippets of words and text complement his works. At first glance these large-scale, figurative paintings with their all-encompassing monochrome ground seem easily understandable. Closer inspection, however, shows the works to be ambiguous and complex: for the various aspects of Tatafiore’s oeuvre are connected with each other. For decades the points of reference of this pictorial language have been the French Revolution and the central figures of the history of ideas in Europe. Their contradictions, polarities, and ambivalences metaphorically stand for all of reality, and consequently Tatafiore can speak in his paintings of the duality of things: of virtue and vice, of freedom and the compulsions of Eros and Thanatos. He expresses his preoccupation with these, as well as with the myths, through an almost playful artistry that precludes false pathos. Tatafiore is a chronicler and participant, but his “method of infiltration” (Jean-Christophe Amman) is adequate for the subject: it is itself ambivalent and subversive.

2008

Utopian-Philosophical , Contemporary Art Museum, Niteròi, Brazil & Castel dell'Ovo, Napoli

2007

Galeria Fernando Latorre, Madrid
Stiftung Schleswig Holsteinische Landes Museen, Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig - Sammlung Großhaus
LEVY, Hamburg

2006

Napoli 1799 Aqaurium, Largo Barracche, Napoli
Museo Pignatelli Cortes, Napoli
Castel Sant’elmo, Napoli
Certosa di Padula, Napoli

2005

Tatakunsthaus, Napoli
Galerie Dittmar, Berlin

2003

Ernesto Tatafiore - Wainer Vaccari
Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Wörlen, Passau
Galerie Dittmar, Berlin
Galerie Bernd Klüser, München

2002

Pictor Pictura, Galerie Levy, Hamburg

2001

Incontro, Bottega D’Arte di Maurizio Siniscalo, Neapel
Ex Libris, Galassia Gutenberg, Mostra d’Oltremare, Neapel

2000

Paintings: Schnabel, Sicilia, Fetting, Tatafiore, BCA – Boukamel Contemporaray Art, London
Gente di Mare, Galleri Dobloug, Oslo

1999

Galerie Levy, Hamburg
1999 Museum of Contemporary Art Ludwig Museum, Budapest
Dovin Gallery, Budapest
Galerie Tobias Hirschmann, Frankfurt/Main
Galerie Dittmar, Berlin
Art’30, Galerie Pudelko,Basel
Castel Nuovo, Neapel

1998

Il gioco della rivoluzione, Galerie Reneé Laporte, Antibes
The complete prints 1968-1998 and 10 new Bronzes, Galerie Levy, Hamburg

1997

Raab Boukamel Gallery, London
Galerie Podelko, Bonn
Galerie Tobias Hirschmann, Frankfurt
Navi di Terra, Galleri Dobloug, Oslo
Galerie Frebel und Schmidt, Westerland/Sylt
Psarotaberna, Galleria Scognamiglio e Teano, Neapel
Compagni di Viaggio, Bottega D’Arte Siniscalco e Gori, Neapel
Galerie Christian Dam

1996

Galeria Levy, Madrid
Tatafiore per Robespierre, Instituto Italiano per gli Filosofici, Neapel

1995

Galerie Levy, Hamburg
Stampa, Basel
Galerie Dambier Masset, Paris

1994

Materiale di scena, Instituto Francese, Neapel
Präsentation des Buches "Lo Guarracino“

1993

Ernesto Tatafiore, Museum Moderner Kunst, Wien
Indiani, Instituto Francese, Neapel
Galerie Piece Unique, Paris
Galerie Hilger, Wien

1992

Ernesto Tatafiore, Abbaye Saint-Andre, Meymac
La Commedia dell'Arte, Lucio Amelio, Neapel

1991

Ernesto Tatafiore, Gallery Raab, London
A canzone e Robespierre, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Ernesto Tatafiore, Galerie Raab, Berlin

1990

Ernesto Tatafiore, Galleri Fahl, Stockholm
Ernesto Tatafiore, Padiglione Italiano, Biennale di Venezia, Venedig

1989

La macchina della rivoluzione, Galleria Anders Tornberg, Lund
Ernesto Tatafiore, Galerie Isy Brachot, Paris
Ernesto Tatafiore, Galerie Isy Brachot, Bruxelles
Ventoso, Galleria Philippe Daverio, Mailand

1988

Canteremo tutta la vita, Galleria Rizzardi, Mailand
Ernesto Tatafiore portatore di mare, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense
Bilder und Zeichnungen, Art Forum Thomas, München

1987

Lentamente Fram Nord, Galleri Dobloug, Oslo
Alfista Volante, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Ernesto Tatafiore, FRAC Rhone Alpes, Lyon

1986

Ernesto Tatafiore, Galerie Harald Behm, Hamburg
Ernesto Tatafiore, Anders Tornberg Gallery, Lund
Ernesto Tatafiore, Galleri Fahl, Stockholm

1985

Vendicante, Galleria Il Ponte, Rom
Ernesto Tatafiore, Galerie Stampa, Basel
Mezzanine, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Chicago Art Expo, Galleria Il Ponte, Chicago

1984

Spende il fumo, Lucio Amelio, Neapel

1983

Galerie Art in Progress, Monaco
Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York
Gimpel , Zürich
Galleriet, Lund

1982

Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Madrid
Galerie Ehrhardt, Madrid
Kunstmuseum, Luzern
Nouveau Musée de Ville Urbanne, Lyon

1982

Annina Nosei Gallery , New York
Lisson Gallery , London
Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Galerie Josseval, Zürich

1980

Stampa, Basel
Galerie't Venster, Rotterdam
Incontri 1980, Festival dei 2 mondi, Spoleto
Sieben aus Italien, Kunsthalle Basel; Folkwangmuseum, Essen; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
APERTO 80, Biennale di Venezia, Venedig

1979

9 Thermidor, Studio Memini, Neapel
Art 10 '79 Perspective, Basel Stampa, Basel
Galleria Fabibasaglia, Bologna

1978

Ideologie und Praxis von Maximilien Robespierre, Stampa, Basel
Indice di Robespierre, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Der Schiffskapitän M. Robespierre, Paul Maenz, Köln

1977

Ideologia und Praxis, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Podio dei Mondo per l'Arte, Middelburg

1976

Ideologie und Praxis, Galleria La Salita, Rom

1975

Vita dei poeta, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Robespierre, Expo Arte Fiera, Lucio Amelio, Bari

1974

Collana Storica, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Contemporanea, Incontri Internazionali d' Arte, Rom
La fine di quel salutare terrore, Studio Carla Ortelli, Mailand

1973

Galleria La Salita, Rom

1972

Rosso, Stampa, Basel

Autobiografia, Lucio Amelio, Neapel
Laboratori Arte Grafica,35.Biennale Venezia, Venedig

1969

Lucio Amelio, Neapel