Biography
Germano Ovani creates, with the oil painting technique, portraits characterized by a strong nostalgic component inspired by a passion for ancient black and white photos, generally from the first half of the 20th century, used to investigate the clues of a past in which individual and collective memory overlap and sometimes coincide.
His artistic training began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino and continued in Great Britain, at the University of Aberystwyth, in Wales. After living in Edinburgh for about fifteen years Germano recently returned to his hometown, Pesaro, where he currently lives and works.
He has exhibited his works both in Italy and Great Britain, most recently at the Italian Cultural Institute in Edinburgh, while one of his works was selected for the annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy.
Moving from one culture to another led him to investigate concepts such as individual, society, culture and power, with a particular interest in the mechanisms, conscious and unconscious, that determine and define the single individual within a society and a historical and cultural context.
Exhibitions:
2023: The 197th Royal Scottish Academy Annual exhibition (online), Edinburgh, UK
2023: Masks are mandatory, Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh UK
2021: Family Lexicon, Italian Institute of Culture, Edinburgh, UK
2019: I quadri viventi di Germano Ovani, sede Ordine degli Architetti PPC della Provincia di Pesaro-Urbino, Pesaro, Italy
2014: Two Italian illustrators in Edinburgh, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, UK
2010: Viaggio con figure nell’opera di Italo Calvino, Bologna, Italy
2007: A Bunch of Peculiars, North Edinburgh Art Centre, Edinburgh, UK
2006: Solo Exhibiton, Filmhouse, Edinburgh, UK
2006: Solo Exhibition, North Edinburgh Art Centre, Edinburgh, UK
2006: A Bird’s eye view, Italian Institute, Edinburgh, UK
2005: A Bunch of Peculiars, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
2004: A Bunch of Peculiars, Centro Promozione Cultura Italiana, Edinburgh, UK
2004: Bravo! Italian Illustration Exhibition: Taipei, Taiwan
2000: Master’s Exhibition, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
1999: Illustrators 1999, Competition/Exhibition, Il Battello a Vapore, Piemme Junior, Comune di Verbania, Italy
1998: Arrivano i Mostri, 4° International Competition of Children’s Books Illustrations, Città di Chioggia, Italy
1995: ArteViva, International Exhibition/Laboratory: Artists from Academies of Barcelona, London, Milan, Paris and Urbino; Senigallia, Italy
1995: Athema, Youth Art Exhibition, Città di Fano, Italy