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 latest collaboration is with Universal Music Group, Lenovo and Intel for Alessia Cara’s new album “Love and Hyperbole”.
Her animated clips have been screened at film festivals around the world.
Among her commercial work, she directed and animated the “Never Beaten” campaign for Beats by Dre with creative director Casey Ryder, featured on Hypebeast, It’s Nice That and more.
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, from Region Sud and Region Auvergne /Rhone Alps.
Among other projects, she worked 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 and is working on the animations for the documentary “Mosh”, directed by Tom Dream.
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, finalist to the 2025 National Magazine Awards in the category Best Illustrated Story. She also illustrated the op-ed “TV medical dramas are not like real life. Maybe they should be” by Dr Daniela J Lamas in October 2024, also on The New York Times.