Image: Fabrizio Plessi in Piazza San Marco, Venice. Courtesy Comune di Venezia
Fabrizio Plessi, a pioneer of Italian video art, has died aged 86. Italian reports, including Sky TG24 and Insideart, place his death on 23 August 2026 at the hospital in Dolo, in the province of Venice; he was born in Reggio Emilia on 3 April 1940.
The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia announced his death in a statement of condolence, describing him as an artist of extraordinary originality and a point of reference in international contemporary art, and pointing to his work with water, light and technology. The statement is a tribute only: it gives no details of the circumstances of his death and announces no memorial, exhibition or other event.
The city of Venice paid tribute the same weekend. In a statement published on 23 August, the mayor, Simone Venturini, expressed the administration's condolences and called Plessi a pioneer and a visionary who followed a language of his own. Plessi had come to Venice from Emilia at the age of 14 and later described the city as the grammar of his work; according to Insideart he trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice and went on to teach painting there.
The city's statement records that Plessi took part in the Venice Biennale 14 times, and lists among the works most closely tied to Venice 'Waterfire', shown in Piazza San Marco in 2000, 'L'Eta dell'Oro', which sent cascades of light down the facade of the Museo Correr in 2020, and 'Natale Digitale', the Christmas 2020 installation of 80 golden light modules in the Piazzetta San Marco.
No funeral arrangements, forthcoming institutional programmes or retrospective plans had been announced at the time of writing.
