About

Raffaella Rosa Lorenzo

b. 1973, Rho, Milan — lives and works in Pistoia, Tuscany. Italian visual artist working across sculpture, installation and mixed media.

“Matter recycles itself, recycling renews — and so the bottle becomes a caterpillar and takes the flight of a butterfly.”

Raffaella's practice is rooted in the radical transformation of post-consumer materials — most notably PET plastic bottles — into intricate, light-filled sculptural works that speak to environmental consciousness, regeneration and the resilience of the natural world.

Her artistic sensibility emerged early: at the age of eleven she was awarded a First Prize in a national painting competition, personally commended by the President of the Italian Republic, Sandro Pertini. A self-taught artist, she initially trained in scenic display design in Milan, earning multiple national awards — this formative experience in spatial composition, materiality and visual storytelling would prove foundational to her sculptural practice.

A pivotal moment came in 2011, when she was invited to participate in the 54th Venice Biennale as part of the National Pavilion of the Republic of Costa Rica. For the exhibition themed Stupore (Wonder), she conceived and realised Il Volo (The Flight) — a monumental installation crafted from 540 hand-worked plastic bottles, a numerological tribute to the 54th edition of the Biennale. A luminous butterfly composed of smaller butterflies tracing the arc of metamorphosis from caterpillar to flight, it introduced butterfly sculptures worked entirely from plastic bottles — a technique she developed and which has since become her signature.

Central to her philosophy is the principle of zero waste: in Il Volo, every fragment of each bottle found new purpose — offcuts shaped the plexiglass bodies, melted caps were repurposed for charitable fundraising, and remaining material gave rise to further works. This ethos of total material transformation extends across her entire oeuvre, embodying her conviction that art can give new life to what the world discards.

Drawing on sources as diverse as the Book of Revelation, Dostoevsky's conviction that beauty can save the world, and the visual language of Pop Art, Raffaella has developed a body of work that is at once ecologically engaged and aesthetically compelling. Her ongoing project Hope extends this vision: from plastic bottles emerge petals, worlds, sea turtles — a vocabulary of renewal that insists on the possibility of a different future.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including presentations in Venice, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Berlin and across Italy, and is featured in the official catalogue of the 54th Venice Biennale. She is a member of the Comitato Archivio Artistico Documentario Gierut.

Artist statement

My practice begins where consumption ends. I work with what the world throws away — plastic bottles, discarded packaging, post-consumer waste — and through patient, meticulous hand-working, I transform these materials into sculptures and installations that carry light.

The butterfly has been a constant presence in my work: a symbol of metamorphosis, of passage from one state of being to another. When I first shaped a butterfly from a plastic bottle, I understood that this transformation — from refuse to flight, from pollution to beauty — was the central gesture of my art.

I have always believed that the completion of an artwork happens within the viewer. This is why I rarely title my pieces — I want the work to speak in its own language, to transmit messages that are felt rather than explained. Each piece is an invitation to see the extraordinary within the discarded.

I create with zero waste. Every fragment finds its purpose. This is not merely an ecological principle — it is a philosophical one: nothing is truly lost, everything can be reborn.

Matter recycles itself,
recycling renews —
and so the bottle becomes a caterpillar
and takes the flight of a butterfly;
beyond matter, the spirit is renewed:
it is the soul becoming conscious.

Selected exhibitions

  • 2011 54th Venice Biennale — Il Volo, National Pavilion of the Republic of Costa Rica Palazzo Sant'Elena, Venice
  • Intl. International presentations Venice · New York · Tokyo · Osaka · Berlin

Notable Italian venues

  • Le Sale Affrescate, Museo Civico, Pistoia
  • Palazzo Ducale, Carrara
  • Castello degli Acaja, Fossano
  • Museo della Campana dei Caduti, Rovereto
  • Scuderie Granducali, Seravezza
  • Chiesa di Sant'Agostino, Pietrasanta
  • Palazzo Ragazzoni Bilia, Sacile
  • Torre Ennagonale, Santo Stefano al Mare

Press & recognition

  • 2017TG5 (Mediaset) — dedicated broadcast feature
  • 2011Featured in the official catalogue of the 54th Venice Biennale
  • —Member, Comitato Archivio Artistico Documentario Gierut

Critical writing on the work by Francesco Elisei, Lodovico Gierut, Daniele Menicucci, Claudia Baldi, Tullio Diamanti, Simona Gavioli, Roberto Ronca and others.