Biography
Betty Zanelli is an artist working with photography, digital painting and installation. Born in Bologna, Italy, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna where she studied drawing and painting.
Ms. Zanelli participated in many one-person and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including: New York (Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Museum, P.S.122 Gallery, MMC Gallery, Knitting Factory); Los Angeles (Otis/Parsons Gallery); Berlin (CAOC Gallery); London (Art Works Space); Rome and Bologna (L'Ariete Arte Contemporanea, H2O Art Space, Natural-Camera, Arco di Rab, Il Graffio, Il Campo delle Fragole, Studio Mascarella).
Following his first solo show at P.S. 122 Gallery in New York and at Studio Mascarella in Bologna, Ms. Zanelli moved to New York City and lived there for eight years. In New York she worked in a variety of media and genres, including painting, photography and installation art, often incorporating found objects such as violin cases, violins, music sheets, worn-out fabrics, and objects associated with popular religious culture. She contributed with the children publishing Scholastic Inc., working for teenage magazines specialized in pop culture.
Between 1991 and 1995 Ms. Zanelli participated in the P.S. 122 Project Studio Space Program winning the art residency for two years and showed in LA and at the Snug Harbor Museum in New York.
Back in Italy she pursued her art and teaching careers
Since the year 2000, Betty Zanelli has focused on the use of photography and digital printing in her work, media she uses to investigate popular iconography and pop culture. She continues traveling to further her own research on Luna Parks, places for entertainment, amusement parks, roundabouts, rides and attractions for children, as for the recent research on the Berlin Spreepark , the former DDR Kulturpark.
In the past four years, Betty Zanelli traveled in particular to Berlin where, in September 2014, she held an art residency at the Institut für Alles Mögliche.
Back to Europe, Zanelli has settled back in Bologna, Italy, where she was born.
A graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts - where she studied drawing, painting and photography - Betty Zanelli is currently holding a professorship at that Institution.
