Giuseppe Veneziano (Italian, b.1971) was born in Mazzarino (Caltanissetta) in 1971. He began at an early age to express his provocative creativity; in 1977, at the age of six, he found himself drawing huge faces of well-known Italian cartoon characters Goldrake, Candy Candy, and Tiger Man on the sidewalks. His inspirations were Vasco Rossi, Rambo, Jim Morrison,
Andrea Pazienza,
Charles Baudelaire,
Louis I. Kahn, and Ilona Staller (also known as "Cicciolina").
To please his mother, and against his own wishes, Veneziano attended the Istituto Tecnico per Geometri (Technical Institute for Building Surveyors). He then enrolled in the School of Architecture in Palermo. He graduated after six years, working with comic books—doing illustrations for
Il Giornale di Sicilia (the Sicilian daily newspaper)— and taking part in the students’ movement.
After reading
The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho, he was inspired to move to Milan, where he currently lives and works.
