Olimpia Zagnoli Biography

Olimpia Zagnoli was born in Reggio Emilia on the leap day in 1984. As a child she moved to Milan, where she currently lives and works. Olimpia studied illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Milan and graduated in 2007. The following year, after a period of living in New York, she began publishing her illustrations in Italian and international newspapers. Olimpia draws on Futurism, as much as on The Beatles. Her unique style comprises essential images, curvy shapes and saturated colors, inspired equally by art history and pop culture.

Throughout the years she has collaborated with The New York Times, Taschen, Vanity Fair, New Yorker and Rolling Stone, to name a few. She illustrated three children’s books: “The World Belongs To You”, “Mister Horizontal & Miss Vertical” and created her version of the masterpiece “The Wonderful Wizard of OZ”. Her bright and ironic images have acted as a framework for advertisement campaigns for Google, Sephora, Air France, Clinique and Miller. She has worked with leading fashion brands, among them Fendi, Prada, Hermes and Marella (Max Mara group).

Along with commissioned works, Olimpia Zagnoli conducts her personal artistic research where she builds a dialogue between illustration and different artistic media. In particular, she experimented with the relationship between drawing and tridimensionality, as well as video: she crafted a series of design objects, kinetic sculptures and directed music videos. Her work has been showcased in numerous group shows around Italy and Europe, and in solo shows: “Parco Zagnoli” at the Ninasagt gallery in Düsseldorf (2014), “Cinetica Zagnoli Elettrica” at 121+ in Milan (2015), “La Grande Estate” at Mutty gallery in Castiglione delle Stiviere (2016) and “How To Eat Spaghetti Like a Lady” at Antonio Colombo Gallery in Milan (2017).