Giovanni Aloi

Giovanni Aloi
Giovanni Aloi
Born	Template:Birth year and age Italy
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	Liceo Artistico S. Marta London College of Communication Goldsmiths, University of London
Occupation(s)	Author, curator, art historian
Employer	School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Notable work	Art & Animals (2011) Speculative Taxidermy (2018) Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits (2022)
Title	Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture
Website	www.aloi.info

Giovanni Aloi (born 1976) is an Italian writer and curator whose expertise lies in how nature is depicted within modern and contemporary art. He holds a teaching position in art history and visual culture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Aloi established and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. Additionally, he co-edits the Art after Nature series published by the University of Minnesota Press. Aloi also acts as the USA correspondent for Esse Magazine Art+Opinion.

Education

Aloi’s academic journey began with studies in art history and practice at Milan’s Liceo Artistico S. Marta. In 1997, he relocated to London to pursue a BTEC diploma focused on Photographic Studies and Printing Technique at the London College of Communication. He continued his scholarly advancement at Goldsmiths, University of London, earning a Postgraduate Diploma in Art History in 2003, followed by a Master’s degree in Visual Culture in 2004, culminating with a Ph.D. completed in 2014 that explored the intersection of Natural History and Contemporary Art.

Career

From 1999 until 2004, Aloi was part of the Education Department team at Whitechapel Art Gallery. In 2007, he joined Tate Galleries in London as an associate faculty member.

Concurrently, he delivered lectures on Modern and Contemporary Art at various institutions including Queen Mary University of London between 2006 and 2014, Roehampton University from 2009 to 2013, and has been teaching at Sotheby's Institute of Art since 2012.

Radio, TV, and presentations

In 2013, Aloi participated in the documentary film Royal Pets: One's Best Friend, which is part of the series The Royals. In July 2014, he appeared on the BBC Radio 3 show Animals and Anthropomorphism, joining animal studies scholar Susan McHugh and author Karen Joy Fowler. The following year, in June 2015, Aloi contributed to a BBC Radio 4 episode entitled Butterflies. He also took part in a 2016 installment of the same series focusing on the cultural and artistic significance of the lobster. In 2020, Ferren Gipson interviewed Aloi for the Art Matters Podcast by Art UK. Then, in 2021, he engaged in a discussion on WLPN with artist and co-curator Andrew Yang regarding the exhibition Earthly Observatory. Aloi has made several appearances on PBS Lake Shore’s program Roundtable Perspectives.

Aloi has delivered presentations at notable venues including the Getty Center, New York Botanic Garden, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Natural History Museum in London, Tate Modern, The Royal Institute of Great Britain, Cambridge University, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Conferences

Since the early 2000s, Aloi has been actively involved in organizing, chairing, and delivering keynote addresses at symposia focusing on nature and posthumanism within modern and contemporary art. In 2011, he convened the symposium Animal Ecologies in Visual Culture at UCL, London. This event aimed to investigate artistic engagements with animals and ecosystems, fostering interdisciplinary conversations among artists, scientists, and scholars to enhance public understanding through visual media. The following year, Aloi collaborated with Professor Anthony Podbersceck to co-organize ISAZ2012, which took place from 11 to 13 July 2012 at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, UK.

In March 2016, Aloi joined forces with artist Andrew Yang and art historian David Getsy to co-organize and chair the symposium Human-non-Human Networks at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This event critically examined the zoocentric tendencies prevalent in recent animal studies, seeking innovative methodological frameworks and ethical considerations relevant to the biotechnological and biocapital aspects of the Anthropocene.

Aloi further contributed in 2017 by organizing and co-chairing Truth.Climate.Now., a symposium dedicated to exploring representation, policy implications, and lived experiences within the Anthropocene. This collaboration between artists and scientists at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago sought to chart new aesthetic directions responsive to contemporary political contexts.

That same year, Aloi also chaired the symposium Botanical Speculations at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This gathering featured contributions from artists, faculty members, and students affiliated with the institution, including a keynote lecture by Michael Marder, Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The outcomes of this symposium were compiled into an edited volume titled Botanical Speculations, published in 2018.

In 2019, Aloi was invited to lead a panel discussion at the Getty Center in Los Angeles on the theme of animal representation in contemporary art alongside artists Kate Clark and Claire Owen as well as poet Donika Kelly. That year also saw Aloi launch the Botanical Speculations Discussion Group, an almost monthly online forum open to the public that focused on artistic practices centered around plants. This series continued until 2022.

In 2021, Aloi organized a series of panel discussions with artists and scholars connected to the exhibition Earthly Observatory, which he co-curated with Andrew Yang.

Throughout 2022, Aloi participated in various conferences as a keynote speaker. These included "Phytogenesis II" hosted by the University of Plymouth in the UK; the Traiettorie di Ricerca Symposium organized by Università di Bologna where he engaged in dialogue with Timothy Morton; and the Soils Matter Symposium at Libera Università di Bolzano, whose proceedings were published in a book titled Soils Matter. Additionally, Aloi delivered numerous presentations on Lucian Freud's botanical paintings during the exhibition "Lucian Freud: Plant Portraits", which he curated at London's Garden Museum.

Continuing into 2023 and 2024, Aloi has maintained an active schedule delivering lectures on art and nature themes at institutions such as Goldsmiths College in London; Musei Civici Reggio Emilia, Harvard University in Cambridge; UNSW School of Art and Design Sydney; Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne; University of Bankura in India; Museum of Contemporary Art Montreal; Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC; and University of Copenhagen.

Looking ahead to 2025, Aloi has been invited to contribute at Harvard University's Thinking with Plants and Fungi symposium.

Research and curatorial work

Giovanni Aloi’s scholarly pursuits center on the depiction of nature within modern and contemporary art, with particular attention to the physical presence of artworks, as well as themes such as empathy, climate change, extinction, and sustainability. Initially, his academic focus was predominantly within the domain of animal studies. Following his move to Chicago in 2014, Aloi redirected his research interests towards Anthropocene studies, and more recently, he has concentrated on critical plant studies. Another significant facet of his research examines the historical dynamics of the art market and how economic influences shape both art production and criticism.

In 2014, Aloi was invited by Jody Berland, a Humanities professor at York University, to participate in an international research collective investigating animals and digital interfaces. This initiative, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, explores "the widespread emergence and transformation of animal representations within a global visual culture that utilizes animal imagery to signify, promote, disrupt, and stabilize political, cultural, and natural environments." As part of this endeavor, Aloi co-curated a two-site exhibition alongside Matthew Brower from the University of Toronto. The Digital Animalities exhibition was hosted in Toronto at both the John B. Aird Gallery and Contact Gallery. It showcased works by numerous artists engaging with the complexities and potentials introduced by digital media. Featured artists included Julie Andreyev, Simon Lysander Overstall, Jonathon Keats, Gwen MacGregor, Neozoon, Ken Rinaldo, Lou Sheppard, Donna Szoke, Sara Angelucci, Ingrid Bachmann, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Wally Dion, and Aki Inomata.

From 2019 through 2021, Aloi collaborated with Andrew Yang to co-curate Earthly Observatory. This exhibition created a dialogue between artworks by local talents as well as internationally acclaimed artists, including alumni and faculty from SAIC. The show was intentionally designed to provoke visitors and students into reconsidering ideas surrounding materiality, agency, empathy, subjectivity, and community amid ongoing ecological crises and cultural shifts. The large-scale exhibition featured over 30 artists such as Edgar Heap of Birds, Nandipha Mntambo, Ken Rinaldo, Mark Dion, and Terry Evans. It garnered favorable critiques and was recognized by Time Out Chicago as an essential exhibition for Autumn 2021.

The exhibition also received accolades from The Times, which selected it as "critic's pick of the week," while House & Gardens named it among the "best exhibitions in London."

Aloi's work has been highlighted in numerous publications including Artists and Illustrators Magazine, A Little Bird, Galerie, Gardens Illustrated, The Arts Society Magazine (featuring a five-page analysis of selected paintings by Aloi), The Week, Insider Art, Art Quarterly, RA Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, World of Interiors, The Evening Standard, Harper's Bazaar, The Independent, The New Statesman, and The Observer.

His curated exhibition Lucian Freud Plant Portraits received critical attention from outlets such as The Financial Times, The Arts Newspaper, The Spectator, as well as print-only reviews in Country Life, coverage in Country Town & Life, and commentary in Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore.

In 2025, Aloi curated an exhibition titled Materialities at Chicago’s Driehaus Museum. This show was selected by New City as one of the top five exhibitions opening in February and March in Chicago. The exhibition attracted reviews from multiple media sources including Art Daily, Fox News, Axios, The Observer, Third Coast Review, public radio station WBEZ, and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Interviews

Giovanni Aloi has participated in a wide range of interviews featured in both digital and print media. In 2013, he appeared on the vegetarian and vegan culture platform The Discerning Brute. The Spring 2016 edition of the international art publication Esse began with a piece titled "Beyond Zoocentrism: An Interview with Giovanni Aloi". This discussion delved into key challenges and possibilities surrounding animal representation in modern art, while also critically examining the constraints within the academic discipline of animal studies. That same year, Aloi conversed with curator Caroline Picard about his evolving focus on plants in contemporary art for the cultural website Bad at Sports. In 2018, Cecilia Novero conducted an interview with Aloi regarding his book Speculative Taxidermy for the philosophy platform Aesthetics for Birds. More recently, in 2021, Aloi and Andrew S. Yang spoke on WLPN 105.5FM about Earthly Observatory, an exhibition they co-curated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Additionally, Aloi was interviewed by art historian Robert Enright for issue 159 of Border Crossings, themed 'Human/Nature'.

Books

• Art & Animals (2011: IB Tauris)
• Antennae 10: A Decade of Art and the Non-Human (2017: Forlaget 284 and Antennaeproject)
• Speculative Taxidermy: Natural History, Animal Surfaces, and Art in the Anthropocene (2017: Columbia University Press)
• Animal: Exploring the Zoological World – consultant and co-author (2018: Phaidon)
• Botanical Speculations: Plants in Contemporary Art (2018: Cambridge Scholars)
• Why Look at Plants? The Botanical Emergence in Contemporary Art (2018: Brill)
• Lucian Freud Herbarium (2019: Prestel)
• Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom – co-author (2020: Phaidon)
• Posthumanism in Art and Science: A Reader – co-editor (2021: Columbia University Press)
• Bird: Exploring the Winged World – co-author (2021: Phaidon)
• Ocean: Exploring the Marine World – co-author (2022: Phaidon)
• Vegetal Entwinements in Philosophy and Art: A Reader – co-editor with Michael Marder (2023: MIT Press)
• Manuela Infante: Estado Vegetal (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2023)
• Garden: Exploring the Horticultural World – co-author (2023: Phaidon)
• Tree: Exploring the Arboreal World – co-author (2024: Phaidon)
• Botanical Revolutions: How Plants Changed the Course of Art (Los Angeles: Getty, 2024)
• Lawn (London: Bloomsbury, 2025)
• I'm Not an Artist: Reclaiming Creativity in the Age of Infinite Content (London: Bloomsbury, 2025)

Journals and editorial

Since 2007, Aloi has established and serves as editor-in-chief of Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, a peer-reviewed scholarly publication dedicated to exploring "nature" within contemporary art. This journal features a combination of academic essays, interviews, creative fiction, artist statements, and visual portfolios.

From 2008 through 2013, Aloi held the position of London Editor at Whitehot Magazine, a contemporary art magazine founded by artist and writer Noah Becker. During this period, he contributed numerous exhibition reviews covering shows across the UK, Italy, and the United States.

Beginning in 2016, Aloi has collaborated with curator and writer Caroline Picard as co-editor for the University of Minnesota Press series titled Art after Nature.

His writings have appeared extensively across both scholarly journals and mainstream publications including but not limited to Lo Sguardo: Rivista di Filosofia, Art and Research, Journal of Visual Art Practice, Apollo, Esse, The Guardian, Flash Art, and Art Monthly.