Marco Lodola is one of the leading exponents of Italian new pop art. His work has always explored the myths and icons of contemporary popular culture. Considered one of the most famous and popular Italian artists he has collaborated with leading figures in culture and entertainment and with companies, working for advertising campaigns, TV shows and collaborating with some of the most popular performers of Italian music such as Timoria, the 883 by Max Pezzali and Jovanotti. His work is centred on the idea of the work of art as a container of light, energy, dynamism and movement. Lodola's debut was linked to the New Futurists movement, theorised in the 1980s by the critic Renato Barilli, mixing the futurist idea of experimentation using new materials with advertising, interior decoration and design, and clothing.
The artist uses perspex to create two - dimensional silhouettes in flat colours that refer to an idea of lightness, dance, movement, and, in other cases neon and the simple and effective language of advertising signs. The subjects of his works are the "classic" subjects of the consumer society, such as the Coca Cola insignia, vintage cars and other typical icons of the 60s and 70s, almost always characterised by an idea of rhythm and strong dynamism, such as dancers, musicians and rock stars, girls on Lambrettas or bikes, and sportsmen, superheroes and comic book characters.
Marco Lodola
Artists
Marco Lodola was born in Dorno (Pavia), where he still lives. In the early 1980s he founded the New Futurism movement with a group of fellow artists. Since 1983 Lodola has exhibited his works in major Italian and European cities such as Rome, Milan, Florence, Bologna, Lyon, Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam. He has taken part in exhibitions and projects for important companies such as Swatch, Coca - Cola, the Ferrari winery, Harley - Davidson, Ducati, Illy and others. In 1994 the People’s Republic of China invited him to exhibit his works in the former archives of the Imperial City in Beijing. In 1996 he began working in the United States in Boca Raton, Miami and New York. He took part in the 12th Rome Quadrennial and the 6th Monte Carlo Sculpture Biennial. In 2005, he created a poster for the Turin Winter Olympics and the pink jersey for the 88th Giro d’Italia. He also created new logos for several Italian televis ion programmes like “X Factor”. In 2006 a light sculpture by Lodola appeared at Mexico City international airport. He also created the logo for the centenary of Gandhi’s pacifist movement.
He contributed to the 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009 with the “Balletto Plastico” (“Plastic Ballet”) installation dedicated to Futurist theatre. In 2010 he created the logo for the Umbria Jazz Festival poster and took part in the Shanghai World Expo. In 2014 he exhibited his works in Moscow for Harmont & Blaine under the exceptional patronage of Sophia Loren and opened solo exhibitions at the Evita Perón Museum in Buenos Aires and the São Paulo Football Museum to celebrate the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.