Born 1967 in Cervia, Italy, Giovanna Sarti lives and works in Berlin and Cervia. After studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) in Ravenna, Italy, she was master student in painting of Per Kirkeby at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule (Academy of Fine Arts, Städelschool) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
In 2015 she was visiting professor, for the summer semester, at the Nuova Accademia Di Belle Arti (NABA, New Academy of Fine Arts) in Milan, Italy. Besides many solo exhibitions in Germany and Italy, the artist participated at numerous group shows in her two countries of residence and as well in Vienna, Innsbruck, Pristina, Helsinki, London and New York. Currently she is working on a solo exhibition scheduled for September 2016,”Die Essenz entsteht im Verschwinden” (The essence emerges in the vanishing) at the Kunstverein Heilbronn, Germany (Art Association Heilbronn). A catalogue will be published with illustrations of the works in the show.
For Giovanna painting is a process, where she and the artwork are communicating. In the beginning might be an idea, how the result could look like. She stated “Maybe I’ll consciously take a detail from another painter, use a manipulation of color from Tiepolo or Cézanne or a detail of a brushstroke, for example, for use as a shape to carry information. But then in the moment of painting what happens is for the most part mystery […] the image communicates with you, the color reacts.” (Catalogue “Painting Forever”, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin, 2013, P. 16/17) Her materials are colour, vanish, ink, coal, metal dust and recently rust, which she superimposes in layers, one on the other. It can happen that the used elements are chemically reacting, so that the process is not totally controllable. This momentum of the material is intended by the artist. It permits her to intervene during several days, depending on her inner images, thoughts and feelings and let herself guide by the painting.
Besides her own artistic creations, Giovanna initiates projects in cooperation with artist colleagues. As part of her work, these projects could be seen as a continuation of her conceptual and social approach, where she involves others.
From 2000 to 2005 she invited artists to exhibit in her studio for one night. For the following five years she published “Blatt Spezial”, an art edition, which was released four times a year, each of 250 copies. Artists from different artistic fields as well as curators, critics, writers, contributed to the edition with texts and images.
In 2012 Giovanna started the Drawing Storage. The idea was born out of the requirement to manage and share her own sketches and drawings. Inspired by many studio visits, where she found numerous interesting fragments and completed works, which are rarely shown to the public, she expanded the project into a huge virtual archive. First of all it exists in the web with the periodically publishing of drawings from member and guest artists. To bring these artworks to an “analogue” life, these drawings are presented in physical exhibitions and publications.