BIOGRAPHY & CRITICAL PROFILE

Born in Taranto in 1974, Orodè Deoro lives and works in Lecce. An eclectic artist with a multifaceted language, his research spans from mosaic to painting, extending to live action painting within multidisciplinary performances. His stylistic signature stands out for its profound originality within the contemporary art scene. As highlighted by art critic Alessandra Redaelli in Arte Mondadori magazine: "In his hands, the practice of mosaic takes on a contemporary, pop face in its colors, yet remains powerful in its content: references range from the classical to the masters of contemporary art." This vision is complemented by the analysis of art critic Gian Ruggero Manzoni, who notes that the artist positions himself “with a desperately poetic sign, a witness to the end of an era.”

His distinctive ceramic mosaic works found their foundational genesis at the Vincent City House-Museum in Guagnano (Lecce), where the artist resided between 2000 and 2004, creating a monumental cycle of twenty-two large-scale works—integrated with stones, mirrors, and lights—that permanently history its interior and exterior walls.

Artistic Maturity, Awards, and Museum Acquisitions

Deoro’s journey is marked by major exhibition milestones, international collaborations, and prestigious institutional recognitions. In 2009, he won the Enzo Fani National Award in Rome for the painting section and the Celeste Prize Online Vote in Milan. The consecration of his sculptural and plastic research arrived in 2015, when he won the Gold Medal (Targa d’oro) at the Premio Arte for the sculpture section, with the finalist works exhibited at the Museo della Permanente in Milan.

His production has attracted the interest of prominent international museum institutions. In 2014, and subsequently in 2015, the MAR (Art Museum of the City of Ravenna)—home to the world's most important collection of contemporary mosaic, founded in the 1950s—acquired his ceramic mosaic work En marche! En marche!. In 2018, on the occasion of the Second International Symposium of Contemporary Mosaic at the Egyptian Academy in Rome, the institution acquired his mosaic sculpture Goddess, created during an artist residency alongside leading exponents of the international scene.

In parallel, the artist actively collaborates with the worlds of architecture and design. In 2014, he was featured in Milan with a triptych exhibited at the 7th edition of the Triennale Design Museum, within the exhibition Italian Design Beyond the Crisis curated by Beppe Finessi, and created a large-scale ceramic mosaic mural on the exterior wall of architect Fabio Novembre’s studio-home. He has also signed synergies with international brands, such as the British luxury brand Victoria+Albert, creating a striking artist's bathtub.

Recent Exhibition Evolution and Academic Activity

Alongside his constant commitment to pure research, Deoro balances his studio practice with teaching: in 2019, he served as a professor of Mosaic Techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce.

Recent years bear witness to a renewed creative fertility and a dense exhibition calendar. Between 2024 and 2025, he created a series of large-scale mosaics on panels that became part of the permanent art collection of Level Project in Galatina. In 2025, the city of Lecce dedicated a major anthological exhibition to him titled “Mosaici e carte dipinte” (Mosaics and Painted Papers), held across the institutional spaces of the Castromediano Museum and the Bernardini Library under the curatorship of Daniele Torcellini. Also in 2025, the group exhibition “Tre” at Spazio Rosen in Rome offered an exhaustive overview of his varied expressive registers, presenting a composition of nine paintings on paper, small-format ceramic mosaics, mixed media paintings and mosaics, resin and mosaic sculptures, up to a site-specific mirrored installation created for the gallery's bathroom.

Currently, the artist is engaged in the production of a new cycle of works on panels focused on the fusion of his signature mosaic technique with ceramic surfaces entirely painted and glazed by his own hand.

Performance and Multidisciplinarity

An essential component of Orodè Deoro’s poetics lies in performative action and dialogue with other arts. Co-founder of the Impromptu Theatre project alongside poet and theater researcher Alessia D’Errigo, he has presented significant pictorial and scenic performances in Rome, including VariAzioni belliche at Teatro Sala Uno (2011, as part of the Linea 35 Festival) and Bruciando Bruciando at Teatro Valle Occupato (2012). On the occasion of art festivals and musical events, he has performed live, collaborating with leading figures in jazz and contemporary music, such as Paolo Fresu, Virgil Donati, Paolo Damiani, and Nicola Stilo, as well as consistently interacting with key exponents of the new musical scene of Salento.

Critical Fortune and Presence in Catalogs

Orodè Deoro’s research is extensively documented by articles, covers, and essays in specialized magazines (including monographic coverage in Mosaique Magazine in January and July 2015, and repeated features in Arte magazine). His work is historicized within authoritative publications and general catalogs, including:

• Montezuma, Fontana, Mirko. La scultura in mosaico dalle origini a oggi (MAR Museum of Ravenna), curated by A. Panzetta and D. Torcellini, Silvana Editoriale;

• Il design italiano oltre le crisi. Autarchia. Austerità. Autoproduzione (Triennale Design Museum), curated by B. Finessi, Corraini Edizioni;

• Catalogo dell’Arte Moderna. Gli artisti italiani dal primo Novecento ad oggi n° 51, Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

• 2025 – Mosaici e carte dipinte, Castromediano Museum and Bernardini Library, Lecce (curated by D. Torcellini).

• 2025 – Tre (Group show), Spazio Rosen, Rome (curated by A. D’Errigo).

• 2023 – Orodeide. Vita, morte e miracoli di Orodè Deoro, Off Gallery / MUST Museum, Lecce (curated by M. Agostinacchio and A. Novembre).

• 2023 – Make-Up!, Other Size Gallery, Milan (curated by D. Giancane).

• 2021 – Fracta, Other Size Gallery, Milan (curated by A. Novembre).

• 2020 – Do you love me?, Cattedrale Gallery, Conversano (curated by L. Tauro).

• 2020 – Mosaic 2019, Mosaic Tile Museum, Tajimi, Japan (curated by Mosaic Art Association).

• 2019 – Mosaic Exhibition, Orie Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.

• 2019 – Opere dal mondo, Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste, Ravenna (curated by AIMC).

• 2019 – Bibliomosaico, Biblioteca Cardinale Cicognani, Faenza (curated by R. Berardi).

• 2019 – Mosaic Exhibition, Yokohama Civic Gallery Azamino, Yokohama, Japan.

• 2019 – Ex Voto. Per arte ricevuta, Mondadori Store, Milan (curated by A. Crespi).

• 2018 – XVI° AIMC Congress, Tour Saint Nicolas, Paray-le-Monial, France.

• 2017 – Mon coeur mis à nu, et pas seulement, Cantine Palazzo Rava, Ravenna / Chapelle Saint Eman, Chartres (curated by F. Novembre and D. Torcellini).

• 2017 – Montezuma, Fontana, Mirko. La scultura in mosaico dalle origini a oggi, MAR Museum, Ravenna.

• 2017 – NET, Casa Milan, Milan (curated by D. Torcellini).

• 2016 – Il mosaico nella contemporaneità, Palazzo Tadea, Spilimbergo (curated by the AIMC scientific committee).

• 2015 – Ravenna Mosaico. Opere dal mondo, Palazzo Rasponi, Ravenna (curated by L. Kniffitz and D. Torcellini).

• 2014 – Eccentrico Musivo, MAR Museum, Ravenna (curated by L. Kniffitz and D. Torcellini).

• 2014 – Il design italiano oltre le crises (7th Triennale Design Museum), Milan (curated by B. Finessi).

• 2010 – L’impossibile Bene, Palladium Theater, Rome (curated by NUfactory).