After graduating in Engineering and Architecture, completing a research project at the Centro Studi of the Faculdade de Arquitectura de Porto, and spending two years between South America and Filicudi, he decided to focus his research on the visual arts, combining his interest in a range of disciplines including science, philosophy, geography, and literature. His practice is centered on the study of natural phenomena and rhythms, as well as the cognitive processes involved in defining and conceptualizing space. Drawing plays a central role in the development of his works, serving as a privileged tool for synthesis and reasoning. The artist’s practice is heterogeneous, encompassing a variety of media including sculpture, drawing, photography, video, and installation.
In 2017, together with Valentina Bruschi and Vittorio Rappa, he founded Radiceterna Arte e Ambiente, a platform dedicated to the research and promotion of contemporary art. Through the platform, he has curated a series of exhibitions featuring artists such as Allora & Calzadilla, Katinka Bock, and Björn Braun, as well as an editorial series published by Hopefulmonster (Turin). The project also included the creation of a free library dedicated to the themes of Art and Nature.
His interest in experimental music led him to found the collective Oblivious Artefacts in 2008, bringing together artists, photographers, architects, and sound designers. Active between Palermo, Rome, and Berlin, the collective has developed the visual concepts for several underground techno, IDM, and ambient record labels.
Works by Ignazio Mortellaro are held in various private and public collections, including the Archaeological Park of the Dionysian Walls in Syracuse, where his permanent sculpture Overturning Moment is installed, and La Collina di Loredana, a private sculpture park on the island of Pantelleria. Mortellaro has also participated in group exhibitions at museum and institutional venues including Fondazione Merz in Turin, Riso – Museum of Contemporary Art of Sicily, Kunst Meran, and the Museo Civico di Castelbuono.
His work with FPAC includes:
All Fall Down (with Concetta Modica), 2026
Come casa (group exhibition), 2024
Giš-gi-tug-ga, 2023 (Palermo | Milano)
Threesome (A Game or Activity for Three People) #Lune (with Roman Signer), 2021
Matṛ, 2020
Sono soltanto qui e ora? (group exhibition), 2020
Siamo due abissi. Un pozzo che guarda il cielo, 2017
‘Apar, 2014
Party With Us (group exhibition), 2013