Marina Apollonio

Marina Apollonio was born in Trieste, Italy, in 1940. She studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice. In 1960, she began researching architectural solutions for interiors, and in 1962 turned her attention to visual communication. During this period, she created her first metallic reliefs featuring sequences of alternating colours.

Drawing on the properties of industrial materials, Apollonio developed an intentionally depersonalized approach shared by many artists associated with Optical Art, in contrast to the principles of expressive abstraction. Influenced by the optical experiments of Gibson, Purdy, and Lawrence, she created works that appeared to draw the viewer physically into the image, creating the illusion that the flat pictorial surface had almost disappeared.

In 1965, Apollonio participated in a group exhibition at the Suvremene Umjetnosti Gallery in Zagreb with other members of Nova Tendencija 3, an international artistic movement she had previously joined. This was followed by a series of solo exhibitions, including presentations at Galleria Il Cenobio in Padua (1967), Galleria Sincron in Bergamo (1968), Galerie Historial in Venice (1970), and Galleria Method in Vigevano (1975).

Her practice began with an investigation into the ways in which elementary forms and structures could be articulated. From this starting point, Apollonio developed a rigorous working method based on mathematical systems, proceeding directly from the initial concept to production. After selecting a primary form, such as a circle, she would explore its structural possibilities in order to activate it visually, seeking to achieve the greatest possible effect through minimal means. This process deliberately excluded subjective expression, instead focusing on the communication of specific ideas through visual language.

From 1975 onward, Apollonio’s work increasingly focused on the orthogonal interaction of vertical and horizontal coloured lines against black backgrounds. These works, together with others, were presented in a solo exhibition at Galleria Arte Struktura in Milan in 1979. She continued to work extensively in Italy and internationally until the 1980s, when she devoted herself increasingly to study and research. She currently lives in Padua.