An exponent of the young contemporary Italian abstraction, Raffaele Cioffi explores in his works the ability of painting to capture light and transform it into a source of epiphany. His artistic research, characterized by a close dialogue between light, color and silence, proposes an alternative to the superficially attractive and rapid images of contemporaneity and their chromatic pleasantness, asking the viewer for attention, sensitivity and intellectual participation.
Born in Desio (MB) in 1971, Raffaele Cioffi graduated from the Papa Ratti Art School in Desio, where he began to approach painting. He attended the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, soon deciding to detach himself from the conceptual line represented by Luciano Fabro’s courses to dedicate himself to the path of abstraction. Among his acquaintances are masters such as Claudio Olivieri and Claudio Verna, members of the Pittura Pittura movement, and Mario Raciti, whose teachings profoundly influenced his artistic vision. This legacy is intertwined with suggestions from Morris Louis’ drippings, the compositional structure of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko, the geometry of Frank Stella and the formal interventions of Gerhard Richter, reworked in a deeply personal synthesis that makes painting a ritual and a form of resistance: a means to recreate light and, through it, access a higher dimension of existence.
In works divided into thematic cycles, the artist explores the relationship between color and space, creating images that open the viewer’s gaze to a suspended and contemplative dimension. Concentric shapes and fluid lines evoke portals to spaces that escape conventional coordinates, inviting the viewer to immerse themselves in a sensorial and emotional experience. The idea of the unstable boundary between interior and exterior – explored especially in more recent cycles such as Soglia – has been a recurring theme since the beginning, highlighting the desire to inhabit multiple dimensions simultaneously. His canvases, constructed through overlapping layers of color and careful surface processing, transform light into color to return it as pure light, evoking a third interior and spiritual dimension. In this process, Cioffi’s painting, slow and meditative, asserts itself as an act of resistance and contemplation, reclaiming the two-dimensional surface as the primary place of visual experience.
EXHIBITIONS
2024
“La vita promessa” – Museo Abbazia di Montecassino, Cassino (FR)
2023
“Soglia” – Soluna Fine Art, Hong Kong
“Elective affinities” – Galleria Monopoli, Milano
“La luce liberate” – Circo degli Esteri della Farnesina, Roma
2022
“Luce ombra pittura” – Palazzo Ducale, Mantova
“Costellazioni” – Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Francoforte
“Costellazione” – Arc Gallery, Monza
“Solo show” – Arte Fiera Bologna
“Per una collezione” – Galleria Monopoli, Milano
2021
“Soglie 2018-2020” – Mac Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Lissone (MB)
2020
“Eine Wolke in meinem Garten” – Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Francoforte
2018-2019
“Vapors of light” – Galleria Monopoli, Milano
2018
“Gemaltes Licht / Luce dipinta” – Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Francoforte
“Odyssey of lights” – Eye contemporary art , Hong Kong
2017
“Light screens” – LM Gallery Arte Contemporanea, Latina
2016
“Solidità della luce” – Museo Civico, Palazzo Cuttica, Alessandria
“Una storia di pittura a Nova Milanese” – Villa Vertua, Nova Milanese (MB)
“Fluidità del paesaggio” – Gallery Cart, Monza
2015
“Cioffi – Finelli” – Casa dello Zecchiere, Milano
“Lux Lucis” – Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Francoforte
2014
“Alla luce della Croce” – Villa Clerici, Galleria d’Arte Sacra dei Contemporanei, Milano e Chiesa di San Bernardino alle Ossa, Milano
“Omaggio a Michelangelo” – Frankfurter Westend Galerie, Francoforte
2013
“Sipario” – Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, Varedo (MB)
2012
“Il ritmo del colore” – Spazio e Tempo Progetto Arte, Cagliari
“Il senso e il colore” – The White Gallery, Milano “Biennale di Venezia”, Padiglione Italia, Torino
2011
“L’auramara” – Ex Chiesa di San Carpoforo, Milano
“Il ritmo del colore” – Spazio Concept, Milano
“Arte Accessibile” – Il sole 24 ore, Milano
2010
“Der emotionale Raum der Malerei” – Galerie Vorstadt 14, Zug
2009
“Lo spazio emotivo della pittura” – Museo Nazionale Villa Pisani, Stra (VE)
“Lo spazio emotivo della pittura” – Spazio Tadini, Milano
“Lo spazio emotivo della pittura” – Galleria Alexander Alvarez, Alessandria
2008
“Generazioni anni ‘70” – Spazio Guicciardini, Milano
“il rosso e il nero” – Galleria Silvano lodi & due, Milano
2007
“Din Don Arte” – Villa Bertarelli, Galbiate (LC)
“Profilo d’Arte” – Palazzo della Permanente, Milano
“Generazione anni ‘70“ – Civico Museo Parisi-Valle, Maccagni (VA)
2005
Galleria Pangeart, Bellinzona
Esposizioni fieristiche, Galleria Concetti d’Arte,
Osnago (LC)
2003
Galleria Sekanina, Ferrara
“Sotto sopra” – Galleria Edieuropa, Roma
“Sul filo del colore”- Galleria Ezio Mariani, Seregno (MB)
“Prospettiva interiore” – Chiostro di Voltorre Museo d’Arte Moderna, Gavirate (VA)
2002
“Premio Lissone” – Civica Pinacoteca di Lissone,
Lissone (MB)
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Open Art gallery, Milano
“Visione Interiore”
itinerante:
– Palazzo Bargnani Dandalo, Adro (BS)
– Villa Glisenti, Villa Carcina (BS)
– Fondazione Cicogna Rampana,
Palazzolo sull’Oglio (BS)
– Chiesa dei Disciplini, Castenedolo (BS)
2001
“Il volto dell’anima” – Young Museum,
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Revere (MN)
Cavenaghi Arte, Milano
1999
Rassegna di Pittura Bice Bugatti, Nova Milanese (MB)
XXXIX Premio Suzzara, Suzzara (MN)
1998
“Raffaele Cioffi” – BSH, Milano
1997
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Centro Culturale Maggi, Sesto San Giovanni (MI)
Rassegna di Pittura Bice Bugatti, Nova Milanese (MB)
1996
“Premio San Carlo Borromeo” – Palazzo della Permanente, Milano
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Galleria Lodi, Los Angeles
1995
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Salone Clerici ACLI, Milano
1994
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Galleria Morone 6, Milano
1993
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Villa Ghirlanda, Cinisello Balsamo (MI)
1991
“Nigra Lux” – Il Centro, Nova Milanese (MB)
1989
“Raffaele Cioffi” – Villa Reale, Monza
1988
“Raffaele Cioffi” – UCAI – Ass. Culturale Artisti Italiani, Milano
Collection selection
Collezione del moderno e contemporaneo del Palazzo Ducale, Mantova;
Banca Profilo, Milano;
Civico Museo Parisi-Valle, Maccagni;
Museo Civico, Palazzo Cuttica, Alessandria.
Critics who have written about his work
Flaminio Gualdoni, Claudio Cerritelli,
Marco Meneguzzo, Giovanni Maria Accame, Francesco Tedeschi, Martin Engler, Iris Hasler,
Alberto Barranco di Valdivieso, Corinna Longoni, Roberto Capitanio, Claudio Baglioni,
Roberto Borghi, Nicola Demitri, Pietro Finelli,
Carlo Franza, Matteo Galbiati, Luca Pietro Nicoletti,
Claudio Olivieri, Mario Raciti, Vera Agosti,
Martina Valente, Valeria Vaccari.
