Biography
Gaia Alari is an Italian visual artist and animation filmmaker based in Europe.
During her studies in medicine and surgery (2009 – 2016), she also develops her artistic competences as a self- taught illustrator and visual artist.
She has therefore pursued a career as a visual artist specializing in works on paper in 2016, collaborating with art galleries in Europe: Galleri Benoni (Denmark), Galerie Anouk Le Bourdiec and Galerie Incognito (France).
As of 2020, she has been focusing on directing and animating experimental video-art animation projects and commissioned animation – including music videos, specializing in traditional frame-by-frame hand animation, usually as a one-woman team.
She regularly collaborates with international music labels: Warner, Sub Pop, Atlantic Records (Warner USA), Nonesuch Records (Warner USA), SaddleCreek (US), Full Time Hobby (UK), Sacred Bones (US), JagJaguwar (US). She took part in the collective lyric video for Coldplay, winner of best animation in a music video at the UKMVA.
Her animated clips have been screened at film festivals around the world.
Among her commercial work, she directed and animated a video in partnership with YOOX – NET – A – PORTER and directed and animated the “Never Beaten” campaign for Beats by Dre with creative director Casey Ryder.
In 2023 she was commissioned to animate the documentary short “Hotline 1998”, directed by Andrea Suwito and produced by Talamedia – Mandy Marahimin. The film was nominated for the FFI in the Best Documentary category (Indonesia).
She is currently in pre-production on her first animated short “What comes at night” with La Cellule Production (France). The film received the FAIA dev from the CNC, was presented at the pitches of the Rennes animation festival and the Annecy MIFA (2023) where it received the NEF animation residency prize at the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud (October 2023). The film also won a production grant from the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, Charente department.
As director, she is developing an animated short entitled “Seven mountains and seven seas” with writer/director Noel Keserwany, winner of best short film at Berlinale 2023, and producer Marine Valiant of Dewberries film (France/Lebanon).The project received production support from the Doha Film Institute (DFI) and won first and second prizes at the pitch session of the Tripoli Film Festival (2024).
Among other projects, she is working as animation director on the feature-length docufilm “L’eco dei fiori sommersi”, directed by Rosa Maietta and produced by Ladoc Produzioni (Italy), that premieres at Filmmaker Fest (Milan) in November 2024.
She illustrated cover, feature story and animated the interactive article “What my dog taught me about mortality” by Sam Anderson on The New York Times Magazine, issue June 3rd 2024 and the op-ed “TV medical dramas are not like real life. Maybe they should be” by Dr Daniela J Lamas in October 2024 on The New York Times.