BIOGRAPHY

Ugo Nespolo was born in Mosso (Biella) on 29 August 1941.
He obtained his diploma at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts and later graduated in Modern Literature showing great interest in Semiology.

Ugo Nespolo He made his debut in the Italian art scene in the sixties with contaminations of Pop Art and with a close militancy with conceptualists and poor people.

His production is soon characterized by his strong transgressive, ironic accent and that apparent sense of fun, qualities that lend themselves to the “cinematographic canvas”, exploring this medium of expression in the seventies too.

The eighties concretize the most appreciated maturation of his American period, his paintings represent objects and common places of US cities. He collaborates with Rai for which he creates videos, collaborates in advertising projects and is faithful to the dictates of the historical avant-gardes of “bringing art into life”, the artist must occupy spaces of common life, leave the spaces assigned, canonical.

In the nineties, alongside his numerous activities, he worked in the theater, creating scenes and costumes for Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, at the Opera in Paris, Lausanne, Liège and Metz.

Nespolo is also counted among the “masters of the Palio”, for having painted the two banners for the Palio of Asti of that edition in 2000.

The passage of a century marks for Ugo Nespolo a fundamental step, long desired and sought: the realization of “his” atelier (made in first person inside an abandoned factory of his Turin) which, like a precious casket, wraps and contains his creations, his “technological games”, his most cherished affections.

It is in Nespolo that the organizers of the Giro d’Italia entrust the creation of the pink jersey for the 2003 edition.

Also in 2003 the following events took place:

• Alitalia inaugurates a new headquarters in New York with a solo exhibition by Nespolo;
• A traveling exhibition is organized in Eastern European countries: from the Modern Art Gallery in Moscow to the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg to Minsk (National Museum of Modern Art) and then to Latvia (Riga, Art Gallery Modern);
• A personal exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris and during the Locarno Film Festival two personal exhibitions: one at the Festival venue and the other at the Modern Art Gallery.

In autumn, an important personal exhibition takes place at the Chinese National Museum in Beijing.

2004 begins with two important exhibitions:

Vilnius, Lithuania, at the Ciurlionis National Museum of Art
Canton, China, at the Guang Dong Museum of Art in Guangzhou.

then follow with:

• Personal exhibition in Loano, Palazzo Doria.
  A personal exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and at the St. Petersburg Academy Museum.
• 2005 begins with a solo show at Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, then there is a return to the cinema with:
• The conception of “Inside and Out / A portrait of Angelo Pezzana” produced at the National Cinema Museum of Turin; The illustration of “A Thousand and One Nights” in a precious edition;
• A personal exhibition at the Museo del Mare in Genoa.
• An artistic idea of ​​international importance with “Progetto Italiana”, a video produced by Cinecittà, testimonial Giancarlo Giannini.
• In 2005 in Turin, Nespolo created for Gtt the thematic works in the stations of the Turin Metro and later decorates with its unmistakable imprint the exterior of the shopping center in Via Livorno.

2006:

• Nespolo video images and decals designed for the Turin Metro
• Two personal exhibitions on the occasion of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
• Illustrations, with a movie, of “Faster than the eagle”, a fairy tale about the world champion of skiing Stefania Belmondo.
• “Casa d’Arte Ugo Nespolo”, exhibition of paintings, glass, carpets, ceramics and bronzes at the Bianconi Gallery in Milan. At the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi the Christmas ceremony sees a flight of white doves designed by Nespolo as a symbol of peace.

In 2007 Nespolo painted the banner of the Palio di Siena on August 16th and signed scenes and costumes for the opera Madama Butterfly, as well as an artistic film on the opera that inaugurated on July 20th the 53rd season of the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago Puccini

In 2010, for the 150th anniversary of Campari, Nespolo created a poster in the Milan station that will last all of 2010 and will be the backdrop to the inauguration of the Milan – Rome section of Trenitalia’s high-speed train.

CINEMA AND THEATRE AND TV

From 2007 to 2014, Ugo Nespolo was President of the National Cinema Museum.
In 2007, he continued to work on the theatrical work:
He created sets and costumes for Madame Butterfly for the Puccini Festival Foundation
He created sets and costumes for the baroque opera by Francesco Cavalli Veremonda l’Amazzone di Aragona
In 2014, he created Charleston for the Spoleto International Culture Festival.
In 2015, the National Cinema Museum in Turin organized an anthological exhibition dedicated to Nespolo’s cinematographic activity.
His films have been screened at:
Tate Modern, London;
Centre Pompidou, Paris;
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

UGO NESPOLO’S WORK IN RECENT YEARS

In 2017:
works on Rai Yoyo animations whose series will win the First Prize Cartoons on The Bay
Exhibition Time after Time, Contemporary Art Centre of Montenegro, (Dvorak Petrovica), Podgorica, Montenegro
Exhibition A modo mio at the Centre Saint-Bénin, Aosta, Italy
Exhibition The Vespa in history and art, MACIST, Biella, Italy

In 2018:
designs the Calendar for the Carabinieri.
On the occasion of the celebrations for 35 years of the Swatch Brand, an important personal exhibition of Ugo Nespolo entitled Numbers is organized at the Cité du Temps in Geneva with a precious catalog created by the mathematician Piergiorgio Onifreddi.
The exclusive Il trionfo dei libri exhibition dedicated to the publishing activity of Ugo Nespolo is held at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence.
In 2019, Ugo Nespolo is awarded an honorary degree in Philosophy by the University of Turin.
In 2019, the Fuori dal Coro exhibition is also held at Palazzo Reale, Milan.
In May 2019, the personal exhibition on Nespolo’s cinema entitled Doppio Schermo, Film e video d’Artista dagli anni Sessanta is held at the Huangpu District, Shanghai, China.
Ugo Nespolo Metropolitana Torino

In 2020 the creation of the Museo Metrò continues, accompanying the development of the Turin Metro with a new installation.

In 2022 he curates the poster image of the Fortieth Turin Film Festival.
In 2023 the Reggia di Colorno hosts the photographic exhibition Ugo Nespolo. Wanderer about New York . On display are photos taken by Nespolo between 1981 and 1997 in the Big Apple

NEWS

In 2025:
7-15 March – Ugo Nespolo designs sets and costumes for the opera Il Trionfo e l’Onore by Alessandro Scarlatti – Teatro La Fenice – Venice
17 May – 28 September – Universo Nespolo Personal Anthological Exhibition at Villa Giulia Verbania

UGO NESPOLO IS ALSO THE AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS LITERARY TEXTS:

• Verità e menzogna: un’alternativa logica Schwarz, Milano, 1968.
• Nella riserva circondati dai cow-boys, Mastrogiacomo Ed., Padova, 1977.
• Porte Girevoli. Una collezione di polemiche, Pluriverso, Torino, 1994.
• Arte e vita, Sanzanobi, Roma, 1998.
• Arte & veleni, Espress Edizioni, Torino, 2012.
• ET IN ACADEMIA EGO, Torino, Gennaio 2019.
• Maledette Belle Arti Skira Ed., Milano, Marzo 2019.
• Enrico Baj e Ugo Nespolo, Nespolo ovvero il pretesto del funzionale Skira Ed., Milano, Dicembre 2020.
• Per non morire d’arte Giulio Einaudi Editore S.p.A, Torino, Marzo 2021.
• Situazionismo, (testo tratto da Situazionismo, inserto redazionale allegato al n.364 di Art Dossier, Giunti Editore, Aprile 2019), Giunti Editore S.p.A, Aprile 2021.
• Vizi d’Arte, Skira Ed., Torino, Novembre 2022.