Daniele Mazzoleni

Daniele Mazzoleni, born in Milan in 1970. He grows up in the Milan of the 1980s and 1990s, breathing in the atmosphere of a city for which he will later feel a deep nostalgia. As a child, in his free time, he runs to his grandfather’s tire shop, climbing on stacks of tires with neighborhood friends, and between one street football match and another on Via Lombardini, he stops by Mr. Luigi’s shop for a michetta with ham. While visiting his maternal grandfather’s home on Ripa di Porta Ticinese, he happens to meet his uncle Tony’s friends — Walter Chiari, Domenico Modugno, Julio Iglesias, Mogol — or to receive Christmas greetings over the phone from Gianni Morandi.

In this lively yet deeply humble atmosphere, his innate sensitivity toward all forms of artistic expression takes shape. Thanks to the afternoons spent with his grandfather Orfelio, watching him in awe as he painted his pink sunsets over the Navigli canals, he grows ever closer to painting. Passionate about construction, he graduates from ITC Carlo Bazzi and, until 1999, attends the Faculty of Architecture in Milan.

In 2004, he sets up a small workshop. For about a year, he experiments with the use of different materials, focusing his research on colors and ancestral marks, on symbols from the past that best help him interpret the present. His first artistic production, characterized by graphic virtuosity and vivid enamel colors, evolves toward an ever-greater emphasis on plasticity through the use of two-component resins. In 2006, he creates the brand Neroacciaio and dedicates himself to art design production, creating collections of lamps, tables, and artworks in mirror-polished stainless steel, resins, and aluminum. In those years, Daniele Mazzoleni follows a path of self-production, moving fluidly between art and craftsmanship. The project unfolds through experimentation, continuous trials, mistakes, and renewed attempts, until the final solution is reached.

In his creations, architecture, design, and art converge, yet the true added value lies in craftsmanship: each work is born from an artisanal process over which the artist has complete mastery at every stage. The idea, transforming into gesture and mark, becomes a continuous search — a constant evolution of the self and an ongoing, stubborn pursuit of happiness. During this period, he continues his purely artistic production, drawing on techniques and materials experimented with through Neroacciaio. These years see the creation of his first oil paintings, followed by works in resin, in which he addresses themes linked to contemporary society: political hypocrisy, respect for nature (especially human nature), limitations of freedom, the need to reinterpret historical and current events, and an unrelenting hunger for justice. These messages are conveyed through an ironic and irreverent visual language.

His poetic vision takes shape, leading him to favor ideas over ideologies, great thoughts over thinkers — especially when tainted by politics and human greed. Between 2006 and 2011, he participates in numerous exhibitions and is featured in several industry publications. In 2013, he moves away from producing design objects and approaches the world of architectural planning, carrying out building renovations aimed at creating original and welcoming living spaces, meticulously designed and characterized — particularly in their furnishings — by his creative intervention. In recent years, he has returned to the search for new expressive forms to reflect on themes that have always represented an urgency for him. He creates the portrait cycle presented in the exhibition “Tra la Perduta Gente”, curated by Luca Cantore d’Amore, in which characters, personalities, words, and stories intertwine to become vehicles for messages, dreams, and reflections.