Sandro Chia (Alessandro Cecconi, Florence 20 April 1946) studied at the Institute of Art and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence where he graduated in 1969. After graduating, he devoted himself to travel to India, Turkey and all of Europe before settle in Rome in 1970. The same year he begins to exhibit not only in Rome but also in Europe, gradually moving away from conceptual works towards a more figurative style of painting that will lead him to arrive at the Transavanguardia, a movement founded by Achille Bonito Oliva.
In 1980 he exhibited at the "Aperto 80" section at the Venice Biennale, with the other representatives of the same artistic movement, which stands out for its immediacy and, in some cases, for the "brutality" of the pictorial sign, for the "hefty" of the chromatic impact and for violent colors. In the same year he held a solo exhibition in New York where he decided to move to work between America and Italy. From 1982 he began to dedicate himself to sculpture. In 1984 and 1989 he participated in the Venice Biennale in the "Arte allo specchio" section, in numerous museums around the world such as the Castello di Rivoli, the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York in 1983, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1984, Villa Medici in Rome in 1995.
In 1999, as part of the exhibition on Pop Art (Chiostro del Bramante, Rome), he presented portraits of Italian artists of that current. In painting the artist admires and looks at masters of the past such as Tiziano, Masaccio, Tintoretto, Lotto, Michelangelo, and among the contemporaries Giorgio De Chirico, Fernand Lèger, Paul Cèzanne, Francis Picabia and Marc Chagall, who he re-elaborates and absorbs in his idea of art that seeks in itself the reasons for its existence.
Thus, consistent figures arise that live and belong in this paintings, melancholic characters, often suspended between heaven and earth.
Its canvases, rich of light or heavy color, give themselves as a whole full to the eye, having their roots in the Italian golden tradition.
Chia's mannerism rests on a style that bends to the rapid change of painting. Among the most important works we have: "The Crocodile's Wisdom" (1982), "Nostalgic Figures" (1983), "Portrait of Bruno" (1980), "Fantasmi" (1980).
On October 15, 2007, the work "The Pharmacist's Son" (1981) was beaten for 300 thousand euros by the auction house Christie's United Kingdom becoming its new auction record.
In 2012 the Galleria d'Arte Maggiore G.A.M. pays homage to Sandro Chia with a solo exhibition entitled "Andare Oltre" through a careful selection of historical and recent works, that illustrated the master's entire research. Furthermore, during this event, were also exhibited the refined ceramic works created for “Sandro Chia. Ceramica vs Disegno 1: 0 ", held at the International Ceramics Museum of Faenza in collaboration with the Galleria d'Arte Maggiore.