Giovanni Novaresio was born in Naples (1919), but his name is inextricably linked to the history of contemporary art in Genoa. In fact, in this city he attended the Ligustica Academy of Fine Arts, an institution which in 1947 nominated him as an academic of merit.

After the war, together with the sculptor Sandro Cherchi, he founded the Genova e l'Isola gallery, a point of reference for the avant-garde artists of the Ligurian capital: Novaresio became a point of reference for many young people, such as Giannetto Fieschi who declared many years later "I met Giovanni Novaresio . I owe a lot to him. He instructed me in the principles and gave a lot ”. From 1954 he stayed repeatedly in Somalia, which became his second homeland: he obtained commissions for numerous public works in this nation, which inspired the canvases that most distinguish his production: the young Somali girls and the shepherds identified his painting so much so that he was known as “John the African”.

Having returned to Italy, in 1965 he painted the large fresco for the church of Santa Teresa di Albaro (Genoa), collaborating with his friend Lorenzo Garaventa who designed the main altar. His painting in this period is directed towards abstraction: the artist expresses himself with an original style, somewhere between geometric and informal. Over time, aniconic shapes lose rigidity until they become explosions of color.

A tireless researcher, he passed away in 1997, while he was working on the preparation of a solo exhibition, held posthumously (Godiasco, 1997).

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