Roberto Gramiccia, physician, writer, and art critic, was born in Rome in 1951. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1976 and specialized in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. Throughout his career, he has divided his time between senior roles within the public health service and curatorial, literary, and journalistic activities related to artistic, political, and broadly humanistic topics. He has developed extensive experience regarding issues related to the realm of fragility. This experience informs his reflections on the relationship between human suffering, creativity, and the struggle for social emancipation. These reflections form the basis of his original theory of fragility, which takes full shape in a book titled Elogio della fragilità (2016), the premise and foundation of a Manifesto della fragilità endorsed by numerous eminent figures in the fields of art, politics, and the professions.

Mario Monicelli writes in the preface to his Fragili Eroi (DeriveApprodi) about the qualities of the book: “The second (...) is the most important. It corresponds to a point of view I share (...). That is: in life, fragility and strength, fear and courage, the anguish of death and vitality are always intertwined. In fact, often unexpected strength is born from fragility.” And Margherita Hack, referring to his La strage degli innocenti (Ediesse), writes: “I believe this book is very important to highlight the problems—and possible solutions—in a society which, thanks to medical advances, is increasingly aging yet also becoming more vulnerable.”

He has curated numerous major exhibitions. He has published many books and catalog texts. He has collaborated with several magazines, including Stile e Arte, l’Ernesto, Artribune, and Segnonline. Beginning in 2000, for over ten years he regularly wrote about art and medicine for Liberazione.

Among the most important exhibitions:

2023
The Children’s Crusade. Artists for Disarmament, group show, for the National ANPI, Villa Lazzaroni, Rome.

2022
The Painters’ Tavern, group show, La Nuova Pesa, Rome; Eli, Rome; Palazzo Rospigliosi, Zagarolo.

2020
If Everything Is Art… 50x50, group show, “TraleVolte,” Rome.

2019
Myricae. An Inquiry into Small Things, group show, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Rome. Thales’ Water. Works by José Molina, Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome.

2018
Sum ergo cogito, solo exhibition by Ennio Calabria, Arte Fuori Centro, Rome. Fragile Dimension, group show, curated by Roberto Gramiccia and Alberto Dambruoso, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Rome.

2016
Ricapitolando 1996–2016, group show, Plus Arte Puls, Rome.

2015
La Habana, solo exhibition by Piero Pizzi Cannella, Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, Havana, Cuba. The Light of Rome, solo exhibition by Giuseppe Modica, La Nuova Pesa, Rome.

2014
Aurelio Bulzatti, solo exhibition, Centro di Promozione Culturale Le Muse, Andria. Spaesaggi, solo exhibition by Franco Mulas, Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome.

2012
The Need for Beauty, solo exhibition by Pierluigi Isola, Centro Cult. Muse, Andria. Barefoot, group show, curated by Roberto and Valentina Gramiccia, Brancaleone. Adele Lotito. The Music of Numbers, solo exhibition, Galleria La Nuova Pesa, Rome. The Hand, the Head, the Heart, solo exhibition by Claudio Palmieri, Galleria Limen otto9cinque, Rome.

2010
Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, group show–auction for the newspaper Liberazione, Galleria La Nuova Pesa, Rome.

2008
Ulissici. Homage to Emilio Villa, group show curated by Roberto and V. Gramiccia, Galleria Hybrida.
Shared Mandala, a project by Renato Mambor, curated by Roberto Gramiccia, University of Tor Vergata.

2007
The Hammer and the Sickle, group show curated by Roberto Gramiccia, Daniele Arzenta, and Giorgia Calò, MUSPAC Museum, L’Aquila.

2006
Calendar, dual solo exhibition of Nanni Balestrini and Sergio Bianchi, Galleria Giacomo Guidi, Rome.

2004
A Round Exhibition, group show, Teatro della Rotonda Fonte Ostiense, Rome.

2003
Pizzi Cannella. Polyptychs 2001–2002, Museum of Contemporary Art Palazzo Colonna di Genazzano.

2002
Art Health Work, group show, Buzzi-Unicem Cement Factory, Guidonia.

1999
Free Thinkers, group show, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Zagarolo, Rome.
Celebration for Tano, retrospective on Tano Festa, curated by Roberto Gramiccia and Roberto Lambarelli, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Zagarolo.
Double Pair (Titanic), group show curated by Roberto Gramiccia and Simonetta Lux, Church of the Annunziata, Tivoli.