Gianfranco Zappettini (Genova - Italy, 1939). Lives and works in Chiavari - Italy.

Gianfranco Zappettini's first solo exhibition was in 1962 at Palazzetto Rosso in Genova, while the artist began to work in the studio of the architect Konrad Wachsmann with Winfred Gaul. He learned formal rigour, the importance of tradition and the attention to innovation.

In 1971 he was invited to the Arte Concreta exhibition at the Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster, curated by Klaus Honnef. He began to participate in the main painting exhibitions of the 70s in Italy, Germany and Holland: Tempi di percezione (Livorno, 1973), Un futuro possibile. Nuova Pittura (Ferrara, 1973), Geplante Malerei (Münster and Milan, 1974), Analytische Malerei (Düsseldorf, 1975), Concerning Painting... (travelling exhibition in various Dutch museums, 1975-1976).

In 1977 he was invited to documenta 6 in Kassel, and in 1978 he participated in Abstraction Analytique at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris. Recently his work has focused on the symbolism of warp and weft. In 2007, the VAF-Stiftung Foundation dedicated an impressive monograph to him, edited by Volker Feierabend and Marco Meneguzzo. His most recent group exhibitions include Pittura analitica. I percorsi italiani. 1970-1980, Museo della Permanente (Milan, 2007), Pittura aniconica, Casa del Mantegna (Mantonva, 2008), Analytica, Annotazioni d'Arte (Milan, 2008), Pensare pittura, Museo d'Arte Moderna di Villa Croce (Genoa, 2009), Analytische Malerei, Forum Kunst (Rottweil, 2011). Among the public and private spaces that have dedicated major exhibitions to Zappettini in the last fifty years are: Westfälischer Kunstverein (Münster, 1975), Internationaal Cultureel Centrum (Antwerp, 1978), Museo d'arte contemporanea di Villa Croce (Genoa, 1997), CAMeC-Centro d'arte moderna e contemporanea (La Spezia, 2007), Forum Kunst (Rottweil, 2007, with Paolo Icaro), Lucca Center of Contemporary Art (Lucca, 2012).