About me
Who is Barbara Pietrasanta
Barbara Pietrasanta is an Italian artist and communication designer, graduated in Sculpture from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. She lived and worked in New York in the 1980s, where she held her first exhibitions in the galleries of West Broadway. Her artistic research develops through oil painting on canvas and fresco. Her main painting cycles, Naufragi, Awakening, Risvegli and Altrove, explore the female figure, identity and the contemporary condition. Her works are held in the Collezione Farnesina in Rome, at the Museo della Permanente in Milan, in the heritage of the Provincia di Milano at Palazzo Isimbardi, at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New Delhi, at M.I.M.A.C. Museo Internazionale di Arte Mariana in Alessano, at the MUD Museo del Fango in Messina and at the Palazzo Comunale in Tricase. She teaches Communication Design in the Master’s programmes at Politecnico di Milano. She was Vice President of Triennale Design Museum, member of the Board of Directors of Fondazione Achille Castiglioni and of the Board of Museo della Permanente in Milan. In 2017 and 2018 she was appointed Ambassador of Italian Design Day by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. She is currently a member of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Artepassante and of the Jury of Premio Morlotti 2026.
Barbara Pietrasanta is a Milan-based artist and communication designer, graduated in sculpture from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. In 1984 she moved to New York to further her studies in communication. During her years in the United States she developed a personal painting project, drawing on the stimuli offered by multiracial cities charged with social contradictions during those years of great ferment.
Co-founder of Anyway Comunicazione, she is the author of the essay “L’ideogramma al neon. Comunicazione, pubblicità e lifestyle in Cina” (Lupetti), born from her long experience of teaching and working in China. She writes about art and culture for Thetravelnews and Artlantide.
She has exhibited in New York, San Francisco, Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Pula, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Jaipur, Barcelona, Milan, Rome, Turin and numerous other Italian cities. Major exhibitions include: “Cross Polynations” Teatro Dal Verme (Milan), Villa Ghirlanda (Cinisello Balsamo), Stendhal Gallery and Ambassador Gallery, Istituto Marconi (New York), Frank V. De Bellis Collection (San Francisco), Artissima, Palazzo Nervi (Turin), Italian Cultural Institute in New Delhi and Zagreb, Dante Alighieri Institute (Dubrovnik), Cvainer Gallery (Pula), Jaipur Museum (India), Visual Art Gallery and Arpana Gallery (Delhi), Habiart Art Centre (Kolkata). “Naufraghi e Naufragi”, Acquario Civico Milan and Museo Galata Genoa. In New York she took part in “Red Windows”, a contemporary art installation organised by Christie’s, and was invited by Unicef to an exhibition dedicated to protecting the planet.
Recent exhibitions: “Se”, two-person show with Pino Di Gennaro, Museo della Permanente, Milan, January-February 2025. “Ora e sempre. Quando l’arte è testimonianza”, group exhibition curated by Giorgio Seveso and Francesca Pensa, Casa della Memoria, Milan, April-May 2025; Bipielle Arte, Spazio Tiziano Zalli, Lodi, July-September 2025. “Risvegli” (Awakenings), Sala Veratti, Varese, April 2026, critical essay by Francesca Pensa.
She has produced several installations for national exhibitions at Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Her Via Crucis fresco is in the Chiesa Sacra Famiglia in Cinisello Balsamo, with a full-size reproduction at the Parroquia Jesús Divino Maestro, Huacho, Lima, Peru.
A sculpture is in the Farnesina Collection in Rome. A painting is in the Museo della Permanente collection in Milan. Two paintings are in the Provincia di Milano heritage collection. She has works in the M.I.M.A.C. (Museo Internazionale di Arte Mariana), the MUD Museo del Fango in Messina and the Palazzo Comunale in Tricase (Lecce).
She teaches Communication Design at the Politecnico di Milano Master programmes (PoliDesign) and Visual Design at the Civica Scuola del Cinema “Luchino Visconti” in Milan. She has taught at the ZhongGuan Vocational Training School of Shanghai and the Scuola di Fondazione Italia Cina in Milan. She was a lecturer in Art Direction at the Istituto Europeo di Design for over twenty years.
From 2014 to 2018 she was Vice President of Triennale Design Museum. She was a board member of the Fondazione Achille Castiglioni, the Museo della Permanente di Milano and the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Artepassante.
In 2017 she was appointed Ambassador for Italian Design Day by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with assignment to Cairo and Egypt, and in 2018 to Shenzhen and Southern China. In 2017 she represented Italy at the XVI Italian Language Week in Cairo. She has lectured at Helwan University, Ain Shams University in Cairo and the University of Communication and Journalism in Xiamen. She was a member of the International Jury of the Global Design Award in Shenzhen 2018. In 2026 she is a member of the jury of the Premio Morlotti.
Critical texts by, among others: Francesco Poli, Michele Bonuomo, Paolo Manazza, Rolando Bellini, Eleonora Fiorani, Patrizia Raveggi, Alka Pande, Peter Nagy, Grazia Chiesa, Elisabetta Polezzo, Francesca Pensa, Giorgio Seveso, Luca Cavallini, Stefania Carrozzini, Don Armando Cattaneo, Roberta Castellani, Dorino Iemmi, Carlo Franza, Dario Rivarossa, Vanna Mazzei.
Photo Piero Ribelli