Andrea Benetti is a visual artist born in 1964. A painter, photographer, and artistic draftsman, he is also the author of installations and video art works. In 2006, he conceived and drafted the Manifesto of Neo Cave Art, presented in 2009 at the 53rd Venice Biennale at Ca' Foscari University. In essence, the manifesto is inspired by the origin of art, born in the caves of prehistory. In his works, Andrea Benetti quotes, transfigures, and reinvents concepts and forms of cave painting, hypothesizing an imaginary bridge between contemporary art and its genesis. For almost two decades, Andrea Benetti has undertaken projects in collaboration with various universities, including those of Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Ferrara, Johns Hopkins University, Lecce, Messina, Roma Tre, and Venice. Thanks to collaborations developed over the years, Neo Cave painting has been included in the research programs of some universities in the field of contemporary art.
Andrea Benetti's works are featured in contemporary art museums and numerous institutional collections in Italy and abroad, including the United Nations art collection, the Presidency of the Italian Republic (Quirinale Palace), the Chamber of Deputies (Montecitorio Palace), the Vatican, and some Italian embassies. Thanks to these acquisitions, Andrea Benetti has been received at the Quirinale Palace, the Chamber of Deputies, and in the Vatican, where he met Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and Pope Francis in 2014. Many university professors of Contemporary Art History and important art critics have written and analyzed Andrea Benetti's artistic work, actively participating in projects conceived by the Emilian artist. For several years, "Andrea Benetti" has become an encyclopedic voice, featured with his biography in Treccani, De Agostini, WikiArt (the international art encyclopedia), and Wikipedia, where the detailed history of the artist is translated into thirty languages. In 2020, Andrea Benetti was awarded the 49th "Nettuno d'Oro" Prize, the most longstanding and prestigious annual artistic award in the city of Bologna (established in 1971). His recent exhibitions were held in Bologna at the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly of the Emilia Romagna Region, in London at the Oxo Tower, in Venice at Palazzo Zaguri, and in Milan at ArTheoria Warehouse.