Mario Ceroli occupies a fundamental place in the history of the Italian art.

Born in 1938 in the province of Chieti, Ceroli is a sculptor with an academic background; he studied in Rome with Leoncillo, Fazzini and Colla of whom he became the assistant. Ceroli soon outgrows classicism and became a restless materials experimenter.

It is in 1957 that he "discovered" wood, which will soon represent its immediately recognizable language and style. In the 1960s, when steadily in Rome, he came across the Pop Art, imposing himself as one of the few "real" sculptors able to overcome the “concept of pure artwork” in order to focus on space and installation. So he anticipated the climate of Arte Povera (literally poor art), whose main interpreters in Rome are Pino Pascali and Jannis Kounellis with the difference that Mario Ceroli looks at history, making him a postmodern precursor. He is fascinated by the citation of classic, not without irony and with the typical experimental vein that now characterizes him; from here the tribute to Leonardo, Michelangelo, Paolo Uccello, to Giorgio De Chirico. Well knows are his incursions in the theater and cinema word. He realized one of his most important works Grande Cina when realizing the scenography of Richard III of Shakespeare for the Teatro Stabile in Turin. For the Italian cinema, he made the scenario of one of the most controversial films, Addio Fratello Crudele by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi.

Over the next decades, Mario Ceroli continued working and introduced other materials and medium next to wood, such as glass and gold leaf.

In 2007, he is the protagonist of an important anthology for the reopening of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome.

Mario Ceroli exhibition in Flora Bigai Gallery orbits around a great recent masterpiece, Annunciazione del III Millennio (the third Millennium Annunciation), a sculpture-installation made by Ceroli in 1999. This work emphasizes the anxious spirit that characterized how man approached the year 2000, tensions that than punctually realized.

Another central work in this artistic path is L'Angelo Sterminatore (The Sterminator Angel), 1990, open quotation of the sculpture that overlooks Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome and that appears as the image of a necessary verdict for our specie. Also Diavolo e Diavolessa (devil and she-devil), 2002, two painted wooden figures about 3 meters high, and L’Italia che dorme (Italy who sleeps), painted wood and gold leaf, which comes with unpredictable urgency in our times are part of Mario Ceroli exhibition in Flora Bigai Arte Contemporanea Gallery.