Marcello Jori

Marcello Jori is an Italian artist born in Merano in 1951, recognized as a key figure in the Italian art scene during the 1980s and 1990s. He lives and works between Merano, Milan, and Paris, developing a multidisciplinary artistic path that includes painting, writing, photography, illustration, and design. He began his career in Bologna in the 1970s, holding his first solo exhibition in 1977 at the Galleria de’ Foscherari, curated by Renato Barilli. From the start, the use of words and painted writing has been a recurring element in his work, leading him to be one of the founders of the “New Italian Comics” movement in the 1980s, collaborating with magazines such as Linus, Alter, Frigidaire, Vogue, and Vanity. In the 1990s, he exhibited internationally in important venues, including the “Psycho” group show in New York, a four-artist exhibition with Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, and James Croak at the Kunsthall in New York, and a solo show at the Art Institute of Boston. He participated in three Venice Biennales, the Paris Biennale, and two Rome Quadriennials, showing in prominent museums and galleries in Italy and abroad. In the 2000s, he published the novel "Nonna Picassa" with Mondadori and continued to pursue his total art project, inspired by the Renaissance artist model who combined painting, writing, and other expressive forms. His works are characterized by a continuous dialogue between painting and writing, defined as "painted writing" and "written painting," reflecting his admiration for artists like Paul Klee and William Blake.