Luciano Castelli

Luciano Castelli (born 28 September 1951 in Lucerne, Switzerland) is a Swiss painter, graphic artist, photographer, sculptor and musician. He studied under Max von Moos at the Schule für Gestaltung in his native city and became a central figure in the bohemian scene of Lucerne during the 1970s.

In 1978 Castelli moved to Berlin and joined the circle around the Galerie am Moritzplatz. He became part of the Neue Wilde (Junge Wilde), a movement that reacted against the intellectualism and rigour of the 1970s avant-garde. He collaborated with Salomé and Rainer Fetting and was a co-founder of the punk band Geile Tiere.

Since 1989 Castelli has largely lived and worked in Paris, where he developed his characteristic 'Revolving Paintings': works that rotate 360 degrees without a fixed orientation. His oeuvre is marked by self-portraits in which he photographed himself as a pirate, a woman or an animal.