Giuseppe Modica was born in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, in 1953.
He showed a very early interest in painting, and when he was only fourteen he produced his first works, still life paintings in which everyday reality is metaphysically interpreted.
In 1972 he enrolled in the faculty of Architecture at the University of Palermo, and the following year he moved to Florence, where he developed an intense and fruitful acquaintance with the museums and attended the Academy of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1978.
In January 1973 he held his first exhibition in Mazara del Vallo, and in June of the same year his second one in Palermo. His first personal exhibition took place at the Galleria La Stufa, Florence, in 1976. In the introduction of the catalogue the art critic Elvio Natali already wrote about “metaphysics”.
In 1978, after completing his studies, Modica decided to stay in Florence to carry on his artistic research. These were very difficult years, during which he survived only thanks to the support of a few art enthusiasts and collectors. These were also years of experimenting for Modica, as he structured his particular pictorial expression, the moderation and rigour that would become fundamental and vital elements of his future work.
In 1976 he met his wife Carla, who has since then always been by his side.
In 1982 and 1984 his two exhibitions in Florence attracted the attention of the most credited Tuscan critics: Pier Carlo Santini, Tommaso Paloscia, Renzo Federici, Giuseppe Nicoletti.
In this period he met the painter Bruno Caruso. Their reciprocal esteem and friendship is still alive today. In 1985 Caruso wrote a significant essay for an exhibition in the Roman Gallery “Incontro d’arte”. The exhibition was the starting point of a dialogue with scholars who later supported his work: Dario Micacchi, Enzo Bilardello, Guido Giuffrè and others.
On that occasion he met Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco, who has since then closely followed Modica’s artistic progress.
In 1986 Modica held a personal exhibition at the Gallery “La Tavolozza” in Palermo, where he met the writer Leonardo Sciascia, who was intrigued and fascinated by his work, and wrote an article on the national newspaper “Corriere della Sera”. Sciascia’s article foresaw the new truth of Modica’s research.
In 1987 he moved to Rome. In 1989 he obtained the chair of Painting at the Academies of Fine Arts, and is currently Docente Ordinario di Pittura at Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome.
In the same year he met the critic Vittorio Sgarbi, who described the importance and the creativity of Modica’s works in “L’ammodicazione del sogno”, a text written for his personal exhibitions at “La Tavolozza” in Palermo and at “Jannone” in Milan.
More critics noticed Modica’s work: among others Marcello Venturoli, Sebastiano Grasso, Giorgio Soavi, Claudio Strinati.
His first retrospective exhibition took  place in 1991 at the Tour Fromage in Aosta, where he was invited by Janus, director of the prestigious International Museum of Contemporary Art.
For that exhibition Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco wrote the essay “Le stanze Inquiete”: a fundamental text to understand Modica’s painting.
Fagiolo dell’Arco analysed deeply and originally Modica’s work. He highlighted the complex aspects of the themes: artfulness, light, memory, sicilitude, geometry, specularity, technique.
Through Maurizio Fagiolo Modica met Alfredo Paglione, director of the “Galleria Trentadue” in Milan, who is still today a collaborator and friend.
Modica made another significant acquaintance in 1992, when he met the writer Antonio Tabucchi, who wrote the short story “Le vacanze di Bernardo Soares”, that accompanied a set of Modica’s engravings published by Sciardelli in Milan.
In 1993, on invitation by Franco Farina, he presented a retrospective exhibition in Ferrara, at the Palazzo dei Diamanti. On this occasion a text was written by Maurizio Fagiolo and a poem by Cesare Vivaldi.
In 1997-1998 an exhibition of selected works took place at the Casa dei Carraresi in Treviso. The curator was Marco Goldin, and the catalogue –published by Marsilio with texts by Guido Giuffrè, Massimo Onofri and Claudio Strinati – highlighted the most significant aspects of Modica’s development from 1980 onwards.
In 1999 he was invited to the 13th Quadriennal Exhibition of Arts in Rome’s Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
In 2002 his hometown, Mazara del Vallo, paid homage to him with an exhibition of selected works “La luce è la luce è la luce”. Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco was the curator and the catalogue was published by Umberto Allemandi.
In these years Modica participated in important domestic and international exhibitions: Art Basel 13 e 14; 6th Triennale dell’incisione in Milan; 34th and 35th Premio Suzzara; 27th Premio Vasto; Pitture – Il sentimento e la forma, Treviso; 28th Premio Sulmona; 7th Biennale Internazionale d’Arte Contemporanea, El Cairo; 53rd Premio Michetti; Novecento Siciliano, Minsk, Moscow, Barcelona, London, Palermo; Lo sguardo italiano, 22 artists for Bufalino, Comiso.
In 2004 Superintendent Claudio Strinati, with the sponsorship of the Roman Museums, organised in the Vittoriano the retrospective exhibition “Reflection as a metaphor of painting”, Works 1989-2003, with a catalogue published by Umberto Allemandi.
In the same year another retrospective exhibition “Piero ed altri enigmi” was dedicated to Modica by the Arezzo Civic Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The curator was Giovanni Faccenda, and the exhibition was focused on the enigmatic and arcane relationship between Modica’s works and the sublime legacy of Piero della Francesca.
In 2005 another retrospective exhibition “L’enigma del tempo e l’alchimia della luce” (curator Aldo Gerbino) was held in Palermo, at the Loggiato di San Bartolomeo.
The latest exhibition “La realtà dell’illusione”, was held in Marsala, Sicily, sponsored by the Presidency of that region and by the institution “Ente Mostre d’Arte Contemporanea Città di Marsala”.