A central figure in Programmed Art, Kinetic Art and Constructivism since the 1970s, Gard is one of the leading exponents of new Abstract Art and continues to work in the field of Optical Art. The first national artistic recognition that Gard received in Italy was in 1974, when he was invited to participate in the 12th National Quadriennale of the Society to Promote Fine Art in Turin. In the 1980s, he participated in the 'Grands et jeunes d’ajourdhoui' section of the Salon d’Automne at the Grand Palais in Paris. In total, Gard has participated in six Venice Biennales, as well as the 11th Rome Quadriennale (1986). From Beijing to New York, his work has been shown in over 150 solo exhibition worldwide. Gard has been invited to show in the most important exhibition on International Kinetic Art, from Prague (2008) to Rome (2012), Buenos Aires (2013) and La Plata – Argentina (2014). In 2011, Gard was one of the artists invited to officially represent Italy at the Italian National Pavilion (Venice Arsenal, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi) in the 54th International Venice Biennale. His artwork has been written about by many famous critics, including Giuseppe Marchiori, who founded the historic 'Fronte Nuovo delle Arti' in Venice in 1946, and Pierre Restany, who promoted Nouveau Réalisme in Paris, as well as Giulio Carlo Argan, Renato Barilli, Achille Bonito Oliva, Luciano Caramel, Umbro Apollonio, a Vittorio Sgarbi, Enzo Di Martino, Tommaso Trini, Paolo Rizzi e Alberto Veca. In addition, his work has been written about by famous artists, as well as renowned poets and authors. His works are found in important public and private collections. Gard was born in 1940 in Vestignè (Turin). From 1973 he lives and works in Venice.

“For Ferruccio Gard, this is a happy season of renewed research on the theme of color and form, always a leitmotif of his artistic journey. The glorious exhibition opening today at Ca’ Pesaro is the mature fruit of studies that have consistently engaged Gard’s attention for over 40 years, work that is never repetitive but has a stupefying ability for endless renewal. In his paintings, Gard creates highly original formal and compositional solutions to the nth term, magical combinations of forms and colors that are born of the artist’s commitment to painting, in his vision of the primary importance of form and color. Gard is no stranger to the Ca’ Pescaro International Gallery of Modern Art, and the Venetian artist brings fresh perspective to this new cycle of abstract geometric painting, an area which has again caught the interest of the most astute art critics. In the year of the Biennale, which is exploring political themes of strong moral tension, this compact, systematic sequence of real painting gives us the feeling of a visit to a garden of blooms, reuniting the hierarchies of the essential tools of painying. This tribute to a master of contemporary Venetian art is one way of preserving the bond between Ca’ Pesaro and its home ground, reflecting the international vocation and the local roots that have always marked the Museum’s artistic choose.” Gabriella Belli