The Biale Cerruti Art Gallery was born in 1997 from the cooperation of Edgardo Cerruti and Irina Biale.
Their friendship goes back their university days when, while attending the Faculty Of Architecture in Genova, they discovered a shared passion for art. After graduation, Edgardo remained in Genova while Irina moved to Siena. In the meantime both continued to frequent artists, museums and galleries. The two friends, spurred on by the enthusiasm of Riccardo Cerruti, Edgardo's father and well known art collector and helped by Dino Bugno, well known Venetian art gallery owner, on October 4th 1997 opened the Biale Cerruti Art Gallery in Siena, deciding to make a profession out of a passion. The inaugural show, centred on the French artist Arman, reassumed the project of the Gallery and set the course which the two partners were to embark upon.
The following year, after personal shows involving artists such as Alain Bonnefoit, Mark Kostabi and Ugo Nespolo, a collective exhibition was organized with the title: "The Horse in Art", a tribute to the town of Siena, famous in all the world for “the palio” horse race. For this exhibition works by Massimo Campigli, Marc Chagall, Primo Conti, Mino Maccari, Marino Marini, Andrè Masson, Salvatore Messina, Pablo Picasso, Mario Schifano, Tano Festa, Zoran Music and others were selected.
An important event to mark the first anniversary of the opening.
Over the years the Gallery has tried to maintain its own cultural course, promoting contemporary works, also through modern figurative art, creating a clearly defined identity through specific artistic choices. In a town anchored to the past and to tradition, the birth of a gallery is a necessity to venture a comparison, to foster debate, to create culture.
On April 12th, 2003 the Gallery moved to a new location in Siena, at via di Città 111,very near to the cathedral, the Center for the Contemporary Art “Le Papesse” and the museum centre of Santa Maria della Scala.
The new space has allowed the mounting of high profile shows, both of painting and of sculpture, involving artists such as Arman, Fabio Calvetti, Bruno Lucchi, Alì Hassoun, Robeto Altmann, Giovanni Maranghi, Claudio Missagia. Giorgio Moiso, Fathi Hassan, Antonello Plantamura, Vittoria Vanghelis and Salvo.
In June of 2007 a personal of the Ligurian artist Giuliano Tomaino was organized with the title "Italo's house". For the Gallery the Tomaino exhibition forms a link between the ten past years and the next, it is the starting point to illustrate a journey in progress.
Since early 2007 the Biale Cerruti Art Gallery has been directed by Irina Biale, while Edgardo Cerruti has founded in Genova the Cerruti Art.
During these ten years the Gallery has worked to encourage aesthetic debate, to reconnect art to life, to promote the knowledge of contemporaneity, to discover new talents. Shows after show, artist after artist, a little window on modern and contemporary art has been offered in Siena .
While remaining faithful to the initial project, the gallery has tried to catch changes in art, and this may be one of the characteristics which has promoted the longevity of the Biale Cerruti Art Gallery, this capacity to keep faith with the original project while continuously renewing it. The aims which have been established for the next few years are, first of all the search for continuous renewal, and the defence of freedom of expression, mounting shows of artists from various tendencies. Ten years for the Gallery have meant important and numerous aims achieved but above all mean many projects for the future, to carry out with the same enthusiasm as that first day.