BIOGRAPHY
Michela Martello (b. Grosseto, Italy) is a visual artist whose practice bridges intimacy, spirituality, and cross-cultural narratives. She studied illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED), publishing works in over 30 books before dedicating herself fully to painting in 1993.
In 1998, she relocated permanently to New York City, where she established her studio practice and began developing a distinctive visual language rooted in layered materials, symbolism, and the intersection of personal and universal histories.
Martello’s work has been exhibited internationally, with major solo and group shows at Tsenpo Museum (Tibet), Galleria Giovanni Bonelli (Milan), Pen+Brush (NYC), Tibet House US, MAAM Museum (Rome), MACRO Museum (Rome), ArtSpace (NC), TNAM Museum Tainan, Taiwan, and Soulangh Cultural Park (Taiwan). Notable solo projects include Future is Goddess (2017) and the itinerant installation Just Love (2024–2025), presented across Tibet, Milan, Japan and New York City.
Her work is collected by public and private institutions including the Soros Collection, Serafina Group, and CityCinema Group, and has been featured in New American Painting (2020), juried by Jerry Saltz. Martello has received significant recognition, such as the Tristate Italian Art Prize, selected by Paola Antonelli, Massimiliano Gioni, Nancy Olnick, (iItalian Embassy, NYC, 2023), the Artist Merit Prize (Taiwan, 2022), and a grant from Monmouth Arts (2022) for an installation at the historic Carousel building in Asbury Park, NJ.
Her career includes multiple international residencies in Japan, Tibet, and Taiwan, curatorial projects such as The Fire and the Cow (2022, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milan), and collaborations with Vilcek Foundation (NYC), Pen+Brush (NYC), Galleria Giovanni Bonelli (Milan), and The Camp Gallery (Miami).
Throughout her practice, Martello explores the mystery of intimacy without fully disclosing it, creating a visual language that resonates across cultures and reflects a profound engagement with materials, memory, and place.
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Education
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITION
photo by Katelyn Kopenhaver
1987 - BA Art Illustration, IED Europe Institute of Design, Milano Italy
1984 - College of Fine Arts Arts Brera , Milano Italy
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
PRIZE AND HONORS
PUBLIC & PRIVATE COLLECTION
ART RESIDENCIES &CTIVITIES
SELECTED COMMISSIONS - PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2025 - Erarta Prize, shortlisted at Zona Maco
2024 - Anonymous Grant for the project JUST LOVE.
2023 - Winner of Tristate Italian Art Prize, committee by Paola Antonelli, Massimiliano
Gioni, Nancy Olnick
2022 - Artist Merit Honor by Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau for the Heavenly
Princesses and the BAM Ripple installation, at Soulangh Cultural Park
Monmouth Arts Grant recipient for the art installation Eternal Swoon
2019 - Soulangh Cultural Park & Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau Artistic Merit for the
installation, Everything Has A Vortex
2014 - Bushwick Open Studio, Winner, Understanding Media the Extension of Human
Been
2005 - Emerging Women Artists, Winner, American association of Women, NYC Design
Center
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Tsenpo Museum, Estern Tibet China
Anand Giridharadas & Pryia Parker collection
Jerry Saltz collection
Andrea Soros collection
Davide Bernacca collection
Emilio Bordoli collection
Giovanni Bonelli collection
Soulangh Cultural Park, Children Museum of The Arts, Permanent collection, Taiwan
MAAM Museum, Permanent collection, Rome Italy
2025 - Art Residency, SpaceDepartment Nara, Japan
2024 - Art residency, Tsenpo Museum, Eastern tibet, China
Art residency, AIRK, Kobe, Japan
2023 - Painting Performance for B&B Italia Gaeteano Pesce
UP chair, Pen+Brusch Fund raising, NYC
2022 - Art Residency, Siao-Long Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan
Celebrating the Art of Compassion at Tibet House NYC organized by Nalanda Institute
2021 - Art Residency, The Third Eye Residency Project, Cope NYC
2020 - Brooklyn Rail, New Social Environment #89
Queens Museum, CopeNYC, Teaching virtual workshop
2019 - Art Residency, Soulangh Cultural Park, by CopeNYC presenting the show ''Everything Has A Vortex''
2018 - Art Residency, Soulangh Cultural Park, Curated by Cope NYC
Frottage kids workshop, HereNow space NYC
Frottage workshop, Brooklyn college, curated by Cope NYC
2017 - Art Residency, Gift Wooden Walls, Parlor gallery,
Woodenwallsproject, Asbury Park, NJ
Graffiti Workshop, Pen&Brush, Graffiti Vacation NYC
2016 - Series of Frottage workshop, Educational program Queens
Museum curated by Vida sabbaghi, NYC
2025 - Community interactive mural, commissioned by Universita' Degli Studi Naples,
for Women Center, Municipal office, curated by Cat DelBuono
2022 - Public Art Installation, Ethernal Swoon, Asbury Park NJ
WoodenWallsProject
2021 - Community Mural, Brooklyn Book Festival, commissioned by House of Speakeasy
2018 - Paper Dolls Story, Pen&Brush, NYC, Wall Installation for the launch of the new InPrint Book
Colorful Supremacy, Mural for TED at Asbury park convention hall, NJ
Graffiti Goddesses, Mural for New day, shelter for battered women in Bronx
Auspicious Field, Mural for the Children Museum of the Arts, Soulangh Cultural Park, Taiwan
2017 - The Wave Walk, public art project, Painted fiber glass wave sculpture commissioned by We Are Project Zero - La Mer
Woodenwallsproject, Mural for the board walk in Asbury park New Jersey, Curated by Parlor gallery
2016 - Series of Painting on Canvas Installed on wood panels for LAM residence, Tribeca lofts, NYC
Murals, Graphics, logos, ongoing collaboration with CityCinemagroup, NYC
Woodenwallsproject, Dakini mural for the board walk in Asbury Park, NJ
2015 - Mural series project for Creative Chaos LLC, Dumbo, Brooklyn
Mural and Illustration packaging for TOCCA Company, NYC
Murals for Serafina group, Sao Paulo
2014 - Murals for Serafina group, Rio de Janeiro, Bengaluru, Tokyo
2013 - Murals for Serafina group,Seoul, Dubai
Murals for Geiko San, Sao Paulo
2012 - Murals for Serafina group, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Miami, New Yor​
Pen and Brush NYC, Just Love catalog
Vilcek Foundation, The coloring Book of Michela Martello, Be A Good Ancestor
MAAM Museo dell'altro e dell'altrove di Metropoliz_citta' meticcia, by Giorgio de Finis
Michela Martello, Pen + Brush
Musica! Notazioni sull’Arte Contemporanea , Michela Martello , by Annamaria Targher
Domesticity Revisited, by Rick Kinsel
Repsychling, by Vida Sabbaghi
Trascending Tibet, by Davide Quadrio and Paola Vanzo
Details, A stylist’s secrets to Creating Inspired Interiors, by Lili Diallo
Mangia L’Arte, Imaf, by Rossella Canevari and Elena Maria Manzini
Spas for your home, by Christina Paredes, Collins design
Miracolo a Milano, by Alessandro Riva
2025 - Zona Maco, The Camp gallery, Mexico City
shortlisted for the Erarta prize
Arte Fiera, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Italy
Invest Cape Town, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, South Africa
Fear Fearless Fantastical, curated by Bina Sarkar Elias, P+B
2023 - Tristate Italian Art Italian PRIZE, Consulate general of Italy, NYC
Curated by Chiara Mannarino
Filanda Art AM 4, Old Filanda, Soncino Italy
curated by Luigi Cazzaniga and Ilka Scobie
The Divine The passion and the Magic, Visitor Center,
Newburgh, NY
2022 - Modern Nature, Kipinz Gallery, Walton NY
Sensing Woman, curated by Christine Massy, C24 gallery NY
Artsy Auction to Support P+B,NYC, curated by PPOW gallery
Curatorial, The Fire And The Cow, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli,
Milan, Italy.
2021 - Nest, Gowanus Open Studio
Care, Online group show DearArtists, curated by Kaylan Buteyn
Maybe In May, Basilica di San Celso, Milan
2020 - Art Point, TNAM Tainan Art Museum, Taiwan
This is Who We Are, Manhattan Borough's President Office, curated by Pen&Brush
2019 - Ingombri, L'Altro Altrove, MACRO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
Overlap: Life Tapestries, Pen&Brush NYC curated by Vida Sabbaghi
Wings to Fly, NU Hotel, BK,NY, curated by Welancora Gallery
2018 - Beauty in The beast, Soulangh Cultural park, Taiwan, The Curious Shape of Red, Bellano, Italy, curated by Velasco Vitali
WoodenWalls Artists, The Carousel, Asbury park, NJ
Super S.H.E., Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milano Italy
Arte Verona, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Italy
Overlap Life Tapestries, Penn State, curated by Vida Sabbaghi
On Adornment, Pen&Brush, NYC, curated Jenn Hampton
Arts Connects New York, Fund raising , Paula Cooper, NYC
2016 - Overlap:LifeTapestries, Curated by Vida Sabbaghi, A.I.R. Gallery, NYC
Woodenwallsproject, curated by Parlorgallery, Asbury park, NJ
Musica! Notazioni nell’Arte Contemporanea, Curated by Annamaria Targher, Museo Maso Spilzi, Trento, IT
We Are Infinite, Parlor gallery, Asbury park, NJ
2015 - Domesticity Revisited, Curated by Rick Kinsel, Pen&Brush, NYC
Trascending Tibet, Curated by Davide Quadrio & Paola Vanzo, Trace Fondation, NYC
Repsychling, Curated by Vida Sabbaghi, Teachers college, Columbia university, NYC
2014 - Understanding media, the Extension of Human Being, Juried Exhibit, Bushwick open studio , Brooklyn
2013 - Urban Decay, Tria gallery, NYC
Summer Salon, Rarity Gallery, Mikonos, Greece
2011 - Primo Centro, curated by Alessandra Bonomo, Castello Aldebrandesco, Arcidosso, IT
Art your Food, Itinerant exhibit, Italian Culture Institute, Los Angeles & Lattuada gallery, Milano, Wook gallery, NYC
2008 - Small Work, Juried exhibit, Curated by Jim Kempner, NYU Washington Square gallery, NYC
AAF Art fair, Tria gallery, NYC
2007 - Sacred Ways, Tria gallery, NYC
Small work, Juried exhibit, Curated by Ed Harris, NYU Washington Square gallery, NYC
2006 - Emerging Women Artists, Juried exhibit, NYC Design Centre
2025 - Just Love, Tsenpo Museum, Estern Tibet China
2024 - Love, Tsenpo Museum, Eastern Tibet, China
Just Love, Pen+Brush, NYC
Just Love, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milano, Italy
2022 - The Heavenly Princesses and the Bam Ripple, Siao-Long Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan
Grant Recipient, Eternal Swoon, Carousel, Asbury Park, NJ, WoodenWallsProject, Monmouth Arts
2020 - Of The Earth - Sulla Terra, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milan, curated by Dawn Delikat & Parker Daley Garcia
2019 - Everything Has A Vortex, Soulangh Cultural Park, curated by COPE- NYC, Tainan, Taiwan
Consequential Stranger, ArtSpace, Raleigh, NC
Itaca Penelope, SetUp Art Fair Bologna, Italy, Giovanni Bonelli Gallery
2018 - Michela Martello / Tricia Wright, Pen&Brush, NYC
2017 - Future is Goddess, Pen&Brush, NYC
2016 - Soul Textiles: A Fiber Journey, Trace Foundation, NYC
Time Zone, Curated by Giorgio de Finis, MAAM Museum, Permanent collection, Rome
2014 - Weight of Happiness, Tibet House Museum, NYC
2011 - Metropolitan Buddha, Cappelletti Arte Contemporanea, Milano
2009 - No Panic, Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Mantova, IT
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