{"id":2170,"date":"2016-04-01T19:12:48","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T18:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?page_id=2170"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:41:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:41:44","slug":"betty-zanelli","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.artificialis.eu\/?page_id=2170","title":{"rendered":"Betty Zanelli"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born in Bologna, Italy, Betty Zanelli studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti<\/a><\/span> in her hometown. In the 1980s, she moved to New York, where she lived for eight years. As multidisciplinary artist, her media varies from drawing, painting, photography to digital editing and site-specific installation, often containing found objects. In recent years she increasingly included musical elements in her work, due to an intensified collaboration with the composer and saxophonist Marco Visconti Prasca<\/a><\/span>. Additionally, her teaching work as professor for fashion design directed her on curating fashion show performances with her students in Italy and abroad.<\/p>\n

Doors are an exemplary recurring motive in the artist\u2019s work. Already in 1985, she had the exhibition \u201cApparenze\/Appearances\u201d at the \u201cStudio Mascarella\u201d in Bologna, where she presented ancient doors, with artistic supplements like paintings and collages. A few months later, in January 1986, new old doors were on view at the P.S. 122 Art Gallery, East Village, New York<\/a><\/span>. An example from this time is the preparatory sketch \u201cDoor, NY, 1986\u201d made in summer 1986, which is our Artwork of the Month \/ March 2019<\/a><\/span>. To this day, doors continue to feature prominently in her work. For example, in the exhibition \u201cPassaggi \u2013 \u00dcberg\u00e4nge\u201d at the Goethe-Zentrum Bologna<\/a><\/span> in February 2026. Alongside a wide variety of works featuring doors and landmarks from Europe and Asia, the picture \u201c\u00dcbergang zu Europa\u201d was on display, which is our Artwork of the Month \/ July 2026. As a tribute to Walter Benjamin<\/a><\/span> and his unfinished project \u201cDas Passagen-Werk\u201d (Arcades Project<\/a><\/span>), which had a significant influence on the presented works, Marco Visconti Prasca<\/a><\/span> composed the saxophone performance \u201cFl\u00e2nerie\u201d. The music was premiered by Sara Albani during the ART CITY<\/a> White Night<\/a><\/span> in Bologna.<\/p>\n

In the first half of the 1990s, Betty participated in the Project Studio Space Program, offered by her first American exhibitor, the P.S. 122 Art Gallery. During this time, she presented her works in several personal and group exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. Returning to her home country, she continued her artistic research and placed her works regularly in artistic shows in Italy and abroad, mainly in Berlin, London, Rome and Bologna.<\/p>\n

Starting in 2000, the artist approached digital photography and digital print. Here she focused on popular iconography and pop culture, with a special attention to childhood. In 2011, during a period of research in Berlin, Betty discovered the Spreepark, the former DDR Kulturpark (the only permanent amusement park of the GDR). Deserted after several initiatives of revitalization, at the time there were still some of the old structures, struggling against the decay and the re-conquest by the nature. During two artist residencies in 2014 and 2015 at the Berlin based \u201cInstitut f\u00fcr Alles M\u00f6gliche<\/span><\/a>\u201d, she could deepen her research on inconsistent aspects in urban spaces and her particular interest on abandoned spaces of entertainment like amusement parks. Here she completed her shoots of the Spreepark series, from which our Artwork of the Month \/ April 2016<\/a><\/span> is taken.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, Betty works on her Transboundary-Project<\/a><\/span>, at first glance a documentation about migratory movements of birds of passage. Nevertheless, it is also about human migration and visible and invisible borders. Varying installations of the project were displayed at the B\u00fcro f\u00fcr Bestimmte Dinge, Berlin (2017), at the Biennale Disegno di Rimini<\/a><\/span> (2018) and at the Cobalto Lab<\/a><\/span>, Bologna (2019).<\/p>\n

In 2023, the artist and some of her students participated with \u201cCrossing Threads\u201d at the Fiber Art Festival \u201cFollow the Thread \u2013 New York<\/a><\/span>\u201d. Also, for her exhibition \u201cConcert for a Dress<\/a><\/span>\u201d in the Palazzo Fava Marescotti in Bologna Betty cooperated with her students. Other protagonists of the show were disused violins to whom she gave a new life. Some of these instruments appeared in a different form a little later that year in the exhibition \u201cEingedenken \u2013 Recalling the Future<\/a><\/span>\u201d. This show at \u201cThe Rooom<\/a><\/span>\u201d in Bologna also served as a tribute to one of her installations in New York in the early 1990s, \u201cSymphony of the Lost Ideal\u201d. Dedicated to the fall of the Berlin Wall, this early intervention and its later citation underlines the importance of the city to the artist and points to another recurring subject in her oeuvre.<\/p>\n

Despite the great diversity of media, there are consistently certain elements of continuity. Nevertheless, new elements also appear regularly, which the artist often incorporates as a result of her many travels. Exemplary are the Japanese doors and buildings featured in the Passage-exhibition, which she encountered during her stay there in occasion of her participation in EXPO 2025 in Osaka.<\/p>\n

Her most recent exhibition in June 2026 \u201cScore \u2013 A Visual Symphony<\/a><\/span>\u201d at the Pallavicini 22 Art Gallery<\/a><\/span> in Ravenna, provided a good insight into the Betty\u2019s working methods. The now familiar violins were on display as an installation, alongside with old and new drawings of the instrument. Also, doors, old maps and drawings of migratory birds were in the show. Familiar objects were combined with new ones and placed in a fresh context. Together with the musical performance \u201cFl\u00e2nerie\u201d by the saxophonists Sara Albani and Marco Visconti Prasca, the exhibition was for people familiar with her work, like a party where you meet old acquaintances and new people.<\/p>\n

Betty lives and works in Bologna.<\/p>\n

www.bettyzanelli.com<\/a><\/span>
\ninstagram.com\/ betty_zanelli_artist<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Artwork of the Month \/ July 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n