Maurizio Anzeri on
Creativity, Found Objects,
The Power of Art, Light,
and Connecting Art with Life
Maurizio Anzeri pictured at Photo London 2026, at the 'Positions' section curated by Maria Sukkar, with his works 'Troubles' 2026-Photograph on satin cotton rag paper and threads, and 'Ocean' 2025,-Found photograph, re-photograph on satin cotton rag paper and embroidery
Maurizio Anzeri is a multimedia artist, working in sculpture, painting, photography, drawing and craft.
Anzeri’s art merges abstraction and figuration, exploring emotion, expression, humanity and our sense of the world. His use of embroidery onto photographs—found objects, shift two-dimensional works into three-dimensional ones.
The multitude of threads Anzeri uses transform black and white found images—adding a layer of expression and sentiment, an artistic pattern of colour, raising the original photograph’s underlining meaning, and expanding it into a further depiction.
Whether embroidering on portraits or landscapes, Anzeri's thread incorporates the found object/photograph, visually merging several artistic moments and meanings. The thread also connects the artist back to his childhood. Growing up by the seafront in Loano, Italy, Anzeri who comes from three generations of fishermen, used to watch them repair fishing nets; a custom which the artist recalls into his art through embroidery.
Maurizio Anzeri’s sculptures are crafted with found objects and/or with embroidery. In 2000, Anzeri created sculptures made out of hair for Alexander McQueen, and worked for a year with Isabella Blow producing ‘wearable’ sculptures.
The artist’s works are held in several collections including at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Alexander McQueen Archive, London, the Saatchi Collection, London, Fondazione Agnelli, Turin, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Gagosian Collection, Rothschild Collection, Ivor Braka Collection, London, Statoil Collection, Oslo, Missoni Collection, Milan, The Museum Of Everything, London, Museo Cantonale, Lugano Switzerland, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf and Pier24 Photography, San Francisco.
Anzeri was part of the inaugural exhibition in 2009 of the new Photographers Gallery. In 2010, he won the Vauxhall Collective bursary prize for Fine Art resulting in his solo exhibition 'The Garden Party' at the Q Forum, London. His solo exhibition ‘Family Day’ was held in 2011 at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2013, Anzeri’s solo exhibition ‘But it's Not Late, It's Only Dark’ was held at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff. In 2014, he was commissioned to do a portrait by the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and in that same year took part in the exhibition 'The Needles Eye' at the Kode Museum in Bergen, Norway and in 2015 at the Oslo National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, Anzeri held several solo exhibitions with Haines Gallery, San Francisco, USA. He has collaborated with Hatis Noit for her Concert at St John on Bethnal Green for the release of her album AURA in 2022 and 2023, and showed 'Lesson One' at Italian Cultural Institute, London UK , PLOT BRUN gallery, London UK.
In 2026, Maurizio Anzeri showed with ‘Positions’ at Photo London 2026—'Positions' curated by Maria Sukkar showcased engaging photography relating to memory, landscape, identity, documenting.
Maurizio Anzeri's work brings elements of transformation, merging found objects with creativity, expression, creating layers of stories and connections—from the artist to the maker or artist of the found objects, resulting in thought provoking work that shines light onto the past bringing it into the future with passion and creativity. We spoke to Maurizio Anzeri about his significant latest body of work, his enthusiasm for art and his thoughts on the power of art.
I’m an Italian artist based in London, I work in many directions, some may say that can be quite hectic, I say no, I’m passionate, obsessive about art and making.
The latest works I presented were with ‘Positions’ at Photo London 2026. It’s a series of works that represent most of what I’ve been doing for the last 10 to 15 years that is connected to found photography. I’m not a photographer, I’m a maker. I’m a believer that art is important for our minds.
The series ‘Heavenly Sounds’ is a series of found photographs from Scotland, Asia, California, which I cover with rays of different kinds of mainly gold thread.
At Photo London the images were on display one next to another, I called it ‘The Wall of Light’.
I started this project connected to the dark times the world/we are living through at the moment; If we’re going to present ourselves to the world, then each of us should bring some light; and I believe to find yourself, you have to produce some good.
Maurizio Anzeri, Lake, Gold, 2025; Gold 1, 2026; Gold 2, 2026; Gold 3, 2026; Lake, Silver, 2025; Red 2026, from the series 'Heavenly Sounds', ongoing, Embroidery on found photographs, pictured at Photo London 2026, Positions curated by Maria Sukkar.
Light over darkness,
Always. This body of work is connected to my sculptures, with light as a good woman.
The idea is to take a portrait off the wall and work all around it, turning it into a sculpture.
Maurizio Anzeri, Head-Purple, 2026, found photo, embroidery, wood, brass, ropes, Green Man, 2025; Head-Green, 2026, found photo, embroidery, wood, brass, ropes, pictured at Photo London 2026, Positions curated by Maria Sukkar.
Maurizio Anzeri, 'Troubles' 2026-Photograph on satin cotton rag paper and threads, pictured at Photo London 2026, Positions curated by Maria Sukkar.
The image 'Troubles' is just a drop from the project that i’m working on, which will include everything I do, sculpture, drawing, photography, and it will be called ‘When Troubles Come Knocking I Hope You’re Not In’.
It underlines how beautiful and dark life can be. It’s not one or the other.
I thought life is beautiful but it can be really mean,—for everybody. If we accept that, then it will probably help us to get through it, sadly we know, not everybody gets through. There are too many heartbreaking situations, most of us try to help each other out, because that is possible for humanity to do, and I think art has an important place for that. Art also has an important place in politics, but I think the most significant input that art has, is to connect us to life, because art is about life.
It’s what Louise Bourgeois, who’s my hero used to say, she said art is about life and that sums it up really, what else do we need to say!
Louise bourgeois is one of your inspirations?
She's THE Artist.
We’re going back in time, but earlier in my life, I was at home being creative, just because I always like creating and making things, and at the time, an acquaintance of mine, called me to ask if I would you like to go to Tate Britain, I surprised them by saying that I had never been.
Sometimes when we work in the art bubble, we forget that not everybody’s interested in art or that they know about it
I visited the museum where there was such a fantastic exhibition on called ‘Rites of Passage' and it did that for me, a rite of passage that worked on me. There were about three rooms with Louise Bourgeois' work on show, and I’ll never forget entering her rooms and thinking—'wow can you do that?'—and then coming out of the exhibition sitting on the steps of the Tate, reflecting and thinking—oh wow I know what i want to do!
So I will call her my madrina—my godmother.
Art for you is a vehicle of your expression
It’s the reason I get up in the morning.
The light that you’re putting out into the world.
And what’s coming up next for you, are you going to be working on your sculpture project?
The family of sculptures is what i’m concentrating my energy most onto, but then there are also other projects I’m working on.
We will watch this space then!
for more information
https://maurizioanzeri.com https://photolondon.org/positions/
