Federico Arani (b.1995, Rome) is a London-Rome based artist who works across sculpture, painting and installation, often with a site-specific approach.
Working through processes of transfiguration and material corruption, he treats his practice as a speculative personal language inherently bound to failure, embracing dysfunction, elusiveness and complexity as a methodological stance.
From this emerge crepuscular images, uncertain objects and suspended spatial installations: threshold spaces pointing towards a never fully graspable elsewhere, exploring the distance between what is visible and what is left to imagine.
Within these spaces, moments of encounter and intimacy take shape, questioning the instability of our perception and funnelling a collective desire for contact and re-connection.
Federico is co-funder of the collective and artist-run space Porto Simpatica.
EDUCATION
2020-23
MFA Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK
2014-18
BA NABA, Milan, IT
SOLO/DUO EXHIBITION
2026
(upcoming) Flexitron Gallery, London, UK
Third Attempt to Mould a Lens (solo), Cité Interntionale Des Arts, Paris, FR
2025
Study for Dowsing (solo), Commonage, London, UK
2023
Stay in Your Eye (duo), Split Gallery, London, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
Lama Farfalla X Panopticon, Venice, IT
UNAROMA: Atomistica Prop, Porto Simpatica, MACRO, Rome, IT
2025
Threshold by Dawn: Anatomy of an Unseen, NEST, AlUla, SA
Skulptur, akku Kunstplattform, Emmen, CH
Ford Festa, Porto Simpatica, Rome, IT
To my Student, Litografia Bulla, Rome, IT
Falene, Anni Wu, Milan, IT
Salon ACME 12, ACME, Mexico City, MX
2024
Dumping Ground, Hypha Studios, London, UK
Great Expectations, Spazio Mensa, Rome, IT
Annual Sadness, The Organ Factory, London, UK
2023
Soldi e Paura, Spazio Mensa, Rome, IT
The Perf. End, Milan, IT
Graduate Degree Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK
Burning Desire, Danuser & Ramirez Gallery, London, UK
2022
Interim Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK
Scoppio Terzo, Scoppio (TR), IT
Mal d’Uve, Nizza Monferrato, IT
2021
Scoppio Secondo, Scoppio (TR), IT
Artoday Projects, Guest Artists Section, ReA! Art Fair, Milan, IT
DucatoPrize 2021, Volumnia, Piacenza, IT
2020
Scoppio / Scoppio (TR), IT
2018
Premio Città di Treviglio, Treviglio (BG), IT
Itaca non è Nulla, Spazio Angur, Milan, IT
2017
FOUR, Fondazione A. Pini, Milan, IT
My body can’t hold your gaze, Fondazione A. Pini, Milan, IT
The Great Learning, Triennale di Milano, Milan, IT
2016
Era Pacifica Pare, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, IT
RESIDENCIES/WORKSHOPS
2025-26
Citè Internationale Des Arts, Paris, FR
2023
Lab For New Imaginations, MACRO, Rome, IT
2022
UVA, Nizza Monferrato (AT), IT
2016
Era Pacifica Pare, Careof, Milan, IT
GRANTS/AWARDS
2023
Gibert Bayes Scholarship Grant, UK
2021
Ducato Prize, IT (Finalist)
2018
Premio Città di Treviglio, IT (Finalist)
2016
17° Ricas Prize, IT (Finalist)
PUBBLICATIONS
2026
Frieze Issue 257: The Gulf Issue