Giovanni Frangi was born in Milan in 1959. He studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and made his debut in 1983 at the La Bussola gallery in Turin. In 1986, he held an exhibition at the Galleria Bergamini in Milan; the catalog included an essay by Achille Bonito Oliva. Numerous solo exhibitions followed, including: *La fuga di Renzo* in the Sala del Cenacolo at Montecitorio (Rome, 1998), where his collaboration with Giovanni Agosti began; *Il richiamo della foresta* at the Palazzo delle Stelline (Milan, 1999); the large installation Nobu at Elba at Villa Panza (Varese, 2004); the series of engravings Pasadena, in 2008 at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Udine; MT2425 at the Oratorio di San Lupo (Bergamo, 2008); La règle du jeu at the Teatro India (Rome, 2010); Giardini pubblici at MART (Rovereto, 2010). In 2011, Straziante, meravigliosa bellezza del creato at Villa Manin (Passariano di Codroipo) and in 2013 Sheherazade at the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo in Pisa. In 2014, he created a banner for the MAXXI in Rome: Mollate le vele, followed by Alles ist Blatt at the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua and Lotteria Farnese in the Sala della Meridiana of the Archaeological Museum of Naples. In 2015, he exhibited Settembre in Rome at Palazzo Poli and Usodimare at the CAMEC in La Spezia.
In 2017, it was the turn of “Pret a porter” at Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia, marking the opening of the Capital of Culture year. In 2019, she exhibited at Villa Carlotta in Tremezzo with Urpflanze, and in 2020, she exhibited at Palazzo delle Paure in Lecco in dialogue with a work by Lorenzo Lotto. Vocali is the 2021 exhibition organized at the Stamperia Albicocco in Udine, inspired by the poetry of Rimbaud. In 2022, she exhibited at Palazzo Parasi in Cannobio with Vitaliana. In 2023, he exhibits Showboat Andata e ritorno at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan in the Gabinetto della Grafica and the Sala del Tesoro, and in 2024, he exhibits Le mille vite di Showboat at the Galleria d’arte moderna in Arezzo. In 2025, in Milan at the Palazzo Citterio of the Grande Brera in the Stirling Room, he opens Nobu at Elba. Redux. In 2026, he presents Vera da pozzo at the San Domenico Museum in Imola, where, in the large quadriportico of the Cloister, he exhibits four recent cycles of his work: Urpflanze, The sky is the great space, Cantando sotto la pioggia, Du côté de chez swan.
His works are held in the following public collections: the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Uffizi Museum, Florence; the Chamber of Deputies, Rome; the Mart, Rovereto; the Castello Sforzesco, Milan; and the Istituto Centrale della Grafica at Palazzo Poli, Rome - Rimini Civic Museums - CAMEC, La Spezia - Gallery of Modern Art, Udine - Palazzo Forti, Verona - Palazzo Fabroni, Pistoia - Diocesan Museum, Milan - Quirinale Palace, Rome – Villa Reale, Monza