MERY TORTOLINI

A multi-talented artist and essayist, after studying law and journalism, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome with a thesis on Aesthetics. Her artistic research is based on the relationship between iconic symbols and writing, explored through an original study of creative processes. She has been running experimental teaching courses since 1999 at the ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, at the invitation of Tullio De Mauro, through the ‘Laboratory of Image and Creative Writing’, which she still leads in collaboration with the ISO (Institute of Oriental Studies) and SARAS (History, Anthropology, Religion, Art and Performing Arts) departments, alongside the writer and linguist Annio G. Stasi. She is a judge for the unpublished works section of the literary prize dedicated to Clara Sereni.

The artistic expression of her experiments is revealed through an original technique: cutting. Art historian Claudio Zambianchi says of her: “Seeing Mery grappling with movement through the pressure of a sharp blade’s tip accurately conveys just how physical the process is, how much inner strength it requires, and how the forms Mery carves into the surface are the result of a swift and precise action; in this sense, it recalls the precision of Lucio Fontana’s cuts. However, whilst the latter breaches the surface in order to find another dimension, Mery’s cutting is directed towards the virtually infinite planes concealed within it, which the artist reveals by progressively sinking the tip into the layers of coloured card, in search of the hidden potential of the plane.” (Claudio Zambianchi – ‘Dentro la superficie’).

She has held numerous solo exhibitions at cultural institutions, universities and foundations: the Abdul Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) – Trieste, ‘SCIENCE AND ART = Thinking about the present’; the Mazzullo Foundation in Taormina, ‘Linguistic Architectures – Between images and words’; Ex Vetrerie Sciarra, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome “Imagination is Method”; Agorà Contemporanea. “Art. Open Testaccio” project; “Sapienza” Museum and Laboratory of Contemporary Art (MLAC) in Rome, “The shifting frontier of language. The line and the face”; Città dell’Altra Economia – Rome “Group exhibition”. He has also taught courses on thinking through images for the European Creative Audiovisual Lab (CrAL) Erasmus Plus project at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

She exhibits at the Galleria Monogramma, Via Margutta 102, Rome, making her debut with an exhibition that attracted significant media attention entitled “Near, Far. The Face of the Moving Image”, curated by Claudio Zambianchi, who writes of her: “…. another striking aspect of Mery’s work is the paradoxical sense of depth found within it… so faithful to the realms of the imagination and the unconscious… it suggests a different kind of spatiality, made up of hidden layers revealed by the artist’s decisive brushstrokes… complementary aspects of an ongoing exploration which, over time, has become richer and more delicately poetic”.

She has exhibited at the New York International ‘Affordable Art Fair’ and, again on behalf of ‘Galleria Monogramma’, took part in the group exhibition curated by Giovanni Morabito, ‘L’arte di fare arte’ (The Art of Making Art), with a new research project entitled ‘Prospettive inconsce’ (Unconscious Perspectives), which she is presenting for the ‘Premio Margutta 2026’.

She is the author of research essays on thinking through images. She divides her time between Rome (where she lives) and Tuscania, where (at Via della Pace, 5) she has her own Art and Research Studio – La linea.