Mario Ceroli biography

Mario Ceroli is an Italian sculptor, painter, and set designer. He was born in Castel Frentano, in the province of Chieti, on May 17, 1938. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, under the guidance of Leoncillo Leonardi, Pericle Fazzini, and Ettore Colla, of whom he became an assistant. He began to take an interest in ceramics and in 1958 won the prize for young sculpture at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and exhibited ceramic works at the San Sebastianello Gallery.
Since 1957, he began experimenting with the use of wood, which would become his favorite material. In the Sixties, influenced by Pop Art and particularly by the works of Louise Nevelson and Joe Tilson, he started experimenting with materials and forms that would influence all his subsequent artistic production. During this period, his work focused on creating silhouettes of letters, numbers, and various objects, devoid of color and repeated in series, connected in space or traced with tempera or ink. Only later would he move on to large human silhouettes carved in raw wood and sometimes repeated in series, which would become the hallmark of much of his artistic production. The use of wood as a poor material and, starting from 1970, of rags, paper, and other materials connects him with the artistic research of the so-called Arte Povera.
In 1965, he created Cassa Sistina, which earned him the Premio Gollin. In 1966, he exhibited at the Galleria La Tartaruga in Rome, presenting, among various works, The Last Supper, created a year earlier and now housed at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Roma. From September 1966 to June 1967, Mario Ceroli moved to the United States, and in April 1967, he held a solo exhibition at the Bonino Gallery in New York, where he displayed Butterflies. From 1966 is China, one of the first works in the history of immersive and all-encompassing art that gave the viewer the impression of almost being part of it. In 1969, Mario Ceroli created the Ice Pyramid, a pyramid of ice bricks with a steel sphere containing burning coal hanging at its apex. Simultaneously, he began creating sets for theater, cinema, and television.
In 1988, he created the so-called House of Neptune, a wooden container decorated with the silhouette of the Floating Man, which served as the restoration site for the bronze statue of Neptune by Giambologna. In 1990, he made the Winged Unicorn, in wood covered with gold, displayed at the entrance of the Rai headquarters in Saxa Rubra.
Since the mid-Eighties, he has introduced the use of glass plates in his works and has created numerous monumental installations in public spaces, including the Winged Horse at the Rai Center in Saxa Rubra, Rome.
Today Mario Ceroli lives and works in Rome where he has gathered over 500 of his works in a 3000 square meter house-museum on the outskirts of Rome. The artist's intention is to open this space to the public also to inspire recent generations of artists.