Dennis Del Favero is an artist who has worked with photography, video and new media since the mid 1980s. He studied philosophy at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1976, before going on to further his studies at Masters and Doctorate levels in the fields of literature and visual art.
During the 1980s he worked as a professional photographer, developing close ties with Australian rock group Midnight Oil and engaging in freelance work around the Sydney performance and theatre scene (including work for the Sydney Theatre Company).
His video and installation work first came to prominence with the ambitious work dealing with state terrorism. Linea di Fuoco was a large installation exhibited at the Art Gallery of NSW as part of Carnivale '87 and then included in the First Australian Video festival. The project was put together by Del Favero and FILEF (a federation of Italian migrant workers and their families also based in Sydney). The work combined photographs, texts, sculpture, slides and sound and featured contributions by Eamon D'Arcy, Matthew Lorrimer, Paul Charlier, Claudia Taranto and Katie Woo.
During the 1990s his work began to focus more on the possibilities of new media and interactive video, especially its experimental application within immersive and intelligent systems. Del Favero initiated and co-founded iCinema together with Jeffrey Shaw in 2002, based on the model of Germany’s ZKM, one of the world's most well-known media art institutes, where he worked as a Research Fellow during the 1990s. Since then, as Chair and Co-Director of iCinema until 2009 when he was appointed Director,.
Del Favero's contributions have been further recognised by a number of awards, including the 2009 International Design Excellence Award Gold Medal and finalist for Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010. In the Cambridge Companion to Australian Art, 2011, Terry Smith suggests "his works … have reached a level of maturity with regard to medium that matches that of the best artists working in whatever medium anywhere in the world".
He is currently an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow at the University of New South Wales and Director of the iCinema Research Centre. He has held numerous solo exhibitions including at the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, ViaFarini, Milan and Neue Galerie, Graz, and has participated in major group exhibitions including the Sydney Film Festival, Biennial of Architecture Rotterdam, Biennial of Seville, Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Battle of the Nations War Memorial, Leipzig (joint project with Jenny Holzer).
2009 Forgetful Sky, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2009 Magnesium Light, Galerie Marion Scharmann, Cologne
2007 Apparitions, Kunstraum Marion Scharmann, Cologne
2006 Conversations@the studio, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (Catalogue)
2006 Afterwards, Erasmus Bridge Tower, Rotterdam
2005 Fantasmi, Sprengel Museum, Hannover (Catalogue)
2004 Conversations, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (Catalogue)
2004 Deep Sleep & Ombelico, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich
2004 Fantasmi, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney (Catalogue)
2004 T_Visionarium I, ZKM, Karlsruhe
2004 Deep Sleep, Mori Gallery, Sydney
2004 Ombelico & Deep Sleep, Implant Art, Bonn
2003 Pentimento, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Melbourne (Catalogue)
2002 Pentimento, Mori Gallery, Sydney
2002 Sottovoce, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Catalogue)
2001 Pentimento, Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich
2001 Requiem, Kunstbunker Tumulka, Munich
2001 Angelo Nero & Threshold, Kunstverein Pforzheim, Pforzheim
2000 Cross Currents, Kunstverein Rosenheim, Rosenheim
2000 Requiem, John Curtin Gallery, Perth (Catalogue)
1999 Parting Embrace, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
1999 Cross Currents, ZKM, Karlsruhe (Catalogue)
1999 Parting Embrace, Mori Gallery, Sydney
1999 Yugoslavian War Trilogy, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
1999 Requiem, Landeszeughaus, Graz (Catalogue)
1999 Mors Tua, Neu Galerie, Graz
1998 Parting Embrace, Viafarini, Milan (Catalogue)
1998 Parting Embrace, Mori Gallery, Sydney
1997 Coming Apart, Kunstverein auf dem Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin
1997 Coming Apart, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (Catalogue)
1996 Pieta & Motel Vilina Vlas, Galerie Andreas Weiss, Berlin
1996 Motel Vilina Vlas, Munchner Stadtmuseum, Munich
1996 Motel Vilina Vlas, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1995 Motel Vilina Vlas, Mori Gallery, Sydney (Catalogue)
1993 Prima Facie, Mori Gallery, Sydney (Catalogue)
1993 Prima Facie, Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong
1991 Diario, Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
1991 Diario, Ian Potter Gallery, Melbourne
1991 Diario, Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong
1990 Diario, Mori Gallery, Sydney
1990 Diario, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1990 Diario, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Catalogue)
1987 Linea Di Fuoco, South Australian School of Art Gallery, Adelaide
1987 Linea Di Fuoco, Praxis Gallery, Fremantle
1987 Linea Di Fuoco, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Catalogue)
1987 Linea Di Fuoco, University of Tasmania, School of Art Gallery, Hobart
1985 Scenario N5, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
1984 Quegli Ultimi Momenti, University of Sydney
1984 Quegli Ultimi Momenti, University of Technology, Sydney
1984 Quegli Ultimi Momenti, University of Tasmania, School of Art Gallery, Hobart
1984 Quegli Ultimi Momenti, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (Catalogue)
