I believe life, with its depths and struggles, is an extraordinary adventure. I believe that every human being, in both joy and wound, carries a precious story to share. The experiences we go through—regardless of who we are, how we appear, or the position we hold in the world—contain a unique and unrepeatable richness.
At the age of seventeen, an accident marked my body and my future. I was already a fragile boy, and that event intensified my insecurity and sense of inadequacy. I felt distant from the life unfolding around me, unable to recognize myself, almost deformed in my own eyes. For a period, I lost myself, as if living in a long sleep where I could no longer understand who I was or what place I could have in the world.
My rebirth came through art.
It was an unexpected and natural awakening, as if an invisible thread pulled me out of darkness. Art offered me a way to tell my story without words, to transform suffering into movement, to seek beauty even where it seemed impossible to find it.
Over time, I came to understand that my physical condition, and the inner conflict it generated, are a fundamental part of my expression: an energy that resembles a cry, a drive to exist, to not disappear into shadow, to remain present in the life I love despite its harshness.
The Buddhist philosophy of the Middle Way of Nichiren Daishonin has also been a source of strength: it taught me to look within, to recognize the value of my existence, and to transform suffering into possibility.
This website gathers my work, the pieces that have accompanied my growth over the years, the attempts to give form to what I feel. It is the story of my stubborn love for life. A love that is difficult, sometimes painful, but authentic.
And art is the most honest way I know to tell it.
I was born in Bologna in 1971, the second son of Gianni Paolini and Teresa Vitali. Since childhood, I have felt a strong creative impulse: I drew, built, imagined. It was a natural language for me, a way of being in the world.
After compulsory schooling, on my parents’ advice I attended regional vocational courses to obtain a professional qualification, as I struggled at school. I studied to become a metalworker and worked in that field for a period, but I understood it was not my path. I also tried an apprenticeship as an electrician, but at seventeen, in 1988, a serious road accident changed my destiny. The trauma left me
paraplegic
, and I went through a long coma that also affected my linguistic abilities.After a period of disorientation, I felt I had to react. I resumed my studies, initially as a non-enrolled student at the Art Institute in Bologna, then at the Art Institute, where the path was not easy. During those years, however, I met two people who deeply shaped my growth: the artist Alex Tagliani and the philosopher-musician Davide Montevecchi, friends and points of reference to this day.
Another important chapter of my life was founding, together with some friends, the football team Pollegivesss, established in 1994 and still active today. For me, this team is a second family, a bond that has endured over time. Football has always been close to my heart, and my connection to Bologna F.C. and to the Mods supporters group remains an essential part of who I am.
During my years at the Art Institute, I met the artist Mara Guerrini, a decisive figure. Through her teaching, she helped me recognize the deep love for art that I carried within me and that I perhaps feared to truly acknowledge.
In 1998, I discovered the Buddhist philosophy of the Middle Way of Nichiren Daishonin, which transformed my way of seeing life. This practice gave me the strength to walk with awareness, accept my story, and recognize value even in difficulty.
After obtaining my qualification as an Art Master, I enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, guided by Master Davide Benati, who for five years was a guiding light in my formation. An Erasmus experience in Madrid introduced me to printmaking, a technique that fascinated me deeply. I then enrolled in a specialization in Graphics at the Academy of Urbino, where I developed more advanced engraving skills and where, finally, I began to fully release my artistic voice.
My art is the reflection of all this: fragility and strength, wounds and rebirth, discipline and wonder.
Each work is a way of telling my story without hatred, through a creativity that is, in its own way, an act of love toward life.
If you wish to explore my journey further, here you can find other ways of engaging with my work.
Where the artwork meets people.
Words that linger
Forms, colors, presence.
