Ugo Nespolo was born in 1941 in Mosso (BI), graduated from the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin and graduated in Modern Letters.
In the 1960s he moved to New York, where he was overwhelmed by the cosmopolitan life of the metropolis and suffered the fascination of the nascent Pop Art, while in the 1970s he served in conceptual and poor environments.
His passion for cinema is remarkable and will give rise to important retrospectives dedicated to him in important foreign museums (Philadelphia, New York, London, Paris, Cologne, Beijing, Shanghai). He founded with Mario Schifano the Cinema degli Artisti and between 1967 and 1968 he made numerous films that featured his friends and colleagues Enrico Baj, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lucio Fontana.
Despite American contamination, it does not forget the teachings of European vanguards; The influence of Fortunato Depero, from which Nespolo draws the concept of a playful art that pervades every aspect of everyday life, is very marked. The concept of art and life (which is also the title of a book published by the artist in 1998) lies at the base of the expressiveness of Nespolo and is the legacy of the Futurist movement: Manifesto for the Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe (1915).
Hence his interest in design, applied art and creative experimentation in different fields, such as advertising graphics, illustration, clothing, sets and costumes of operas. His research also ranges from the point of view of materials. Work with multiple supports and with differentiated techniques: wood, metal, glass, ceramic, cloth, precious stones.
