Born in 1921 in Vezzano (Trentino) in Italy, Oliviero Leonardi was an Italian contemporary art painter and sculptor.
He is the last descendant of a great family of master ceramists and glassmakers from Trentino. He spent several years on the island of Capri where he experimented with several artistic media. According to the monograph written by Gustav René Hocke, Oliviero Leonardi was discovered by Fortunato Depero, who also comes from Trentino.
Oliviero Leonardi was the leader in high-fire ceramic paintings on steel (steel plates fired and enameled in ovens at 900 degrees Celsius). His artistic research focused on the subject of cosmogony and took part of its influence from surrealism, notably from Max Ernst and Antoni Tapies.
He was notorious in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s. The artist archives contain a large number of art critics and academic analysis about him. He was exhibited in the major art galleries of the time in Italy, France, Spain, Monaco, Germany and Luxembourg, and with Giorgio De Chirico, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro at the Exhibition Fiuggi 75. His work was also exhibited at the Van Gogh house-museum and the Limoges Biennale in France as well as the Saarland Museum in Germany.
