troilo

Born in Taranto on March 27, 1972.

 

Thanks to his mother, Lucia, he loved drawing from a very young age and practiced it regularly, so much so that his father, Antonio (an anesthesiologist), soon asked him to help him prepare slides for presentations at medical conferences. At just 9 years old, Paolo began drawing pathological anatomy tables.

 

He studied graphic design in high school, then enrolled at the IED in Rome and the School of Architecture in Florence. He didn't finish his studies until he took up an internship at Saatchi & Saatchi Milan in 1998.

 

He stayed at Saatchi for 7 years, quickly becoming the Art Director of the Creative Director. In 2005, he was appointed Creative Director at another agency, Arnold Worldwide, and in 2007, he won the ADCI Grand Prix award for best Italian creative.

 

Three years before the award, Paolo decided to switch from drawing to painting. One afternoon in March, he left Saatchi's to buy everything he needed, and when he got home, he realized he'd forgotten his brushes. That's how he began finger-painting his figurative works, coining a unique technique. In 2009, he left advertising.

 

Until 2011, he collaborated with several Italian and international galleries, but after being selected for the 54th Venice Biennale, he left them all to pursue a career as an independent artist.

He exhibited in 2013 in San Francisco, becoming part of the Feigenbaum Fisher collection, and in 2014 in Tel Aviv, becoming part of the Riklis collection.

Thanks to his patronage, he has exhibited in Los Angeles, Singapore, Istanbul, Dubai, at the Palazzo delle Cinque Lune in Rome, at Palazzo Antinori in Florence, at the Italian Consulate in New York, at RISO in Palermo, and at MarTa in Taranto.

In 2022, he was celebrated by Lamborghini and Ducati as an Italian excellence.

In 2023, the world's oldest fine art paint factory (Lefranc & Bourgeois) will dedicate a color to him in Le Mans: "Troilo Grey."

In 2026, he will have a solo exhibition, THE BREACH, at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.

His exhibitions have been curated by Bruno Corà (Palermo 2016), Luca Beatrice (Milan/New York/San Francisco/Los Angeles), Daniella Talmor (Tel Aviv), Patrizia Nitti (Rome), Alberto Mattia Martini (Parma/Milan), Chiara Canali (Milan), Vittorio Sgarbi (Milan/Rome), and Pupi Avati (Singapore). Marco Meneguzzo (Milan). Troilo lives and works in Milan.