
Paolo Colombo, The Second Time
Edited by Andrea Bellini
Nero Editions
December 2025
ISBN 978-88-80563-33-4
Soft cover
Price
CHF 25
The orders placed between December 19th et January 4th will be processed from January 7th, 2026.
Paolo Colombo: The Second Time, published on the occasion of his eponymous exhibition at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (November 8, 2023 – March 30, 2024), is a monograph dedicated to Paolo Colombo’s artistic practice. Through a long conversation with the director of the Centre and curator of the exhibition, Andrea Bellini, the book traces Colombo’s experience, from his childhood education in Switzerland to his approach to art at a young age; from his first exhibition at Mario Tazzoli’s gallery in Turin in 1974 to his move to the United States, where, in the second half of the 1980s, he interrupted his career as an artist to embark on that of an art curator, eventually becoming director of the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève from 1990 to 2001.
The conversation unfolds between these two facets of Colombo’s professional life, but also offers insights into his passion for literature and poetry—he is himself the author of verses that appear in many works—for Greek culture, from classical to modern, for rebetika musicians, as well as for the artists who have inspired his work, such as Fausto Melotti and Alighiero Boetti.
The dialogue also bridges Colombo’s practice in the 1970s and 1980s with his more recent work, having returned to painting, drawing, and creating around 2011, while also showing various trajectories towards new developments.
Published in English, French, and Italian, the extensive conversation is punctuated by a generous gallery of images accompanying the journey through his work and his multifaceted biography, followed by installation views of the exhibition in Geneva—which also bridges Colombo’s past and present practice. The book is completed by a detailed chronology compiled by Sara De Chiara, also rich in images and documents, which traces his experience as an artist.