PERCEPTION
Every image is born from the silence of listening.
In this first phase, the artist observes the world and allows it to resonate within himself.
DAVIDE ZANELLA Contemporary Artist
“Memory is the diary that each of us carries with them” Oscar Wilde
Davide Zanella’s painting emerges from a dialogue between memory and imagination, transforming both personal and collective recollections into works that move fluidly from the figurative to the Pop world.
About
A journey through artistic training, research, and pictorial vision.
Born in 1976, Davide Zanella developed a strong inclination toward creative play from a very young age, finding in LEGO his first visual language: primary colors, free construction, and a sensitivity to materiality elements that would later become central to his artistic research.
In 1990 he won the Italian LEGO Builders Championship, confirming his early ability to turn play into expression.
From his goldsmith father he inherited precision, patience, and the value of craftsmanship; during adolescence he discovered a passion for Italian, international, and Japanese comics, which led him to study Japanese Language and Culture at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in the 1990s.
In 2011 he founded Arte Zeta Studio, an artistic laboratory dedicated to pop and comic-inspired painting, through which he obtained the official licenses to reproduce Lupin The Third and became an official illustrator for Mediaset.
The studio became a meeting place for clients and collectors, as well as a space for professional growth. He also collaborated with the Sugarpulp association, creating the Sugarprize awards, and worked on graphic and illustration projects for the publishing and music industries, designing covers for publishers and record labels.
Alongside commissioned work, Davide has carried forward a personal artistic journey that spans abstract, material, and surrealist figurative painting.
From this research came Project Cosplayer, a series dedicated to the Nerd universe and created together with Giorgia Vecchini, world champion of Cosplaying.
These works blend photographic collage, painting, and handcrafted frames into vibrant and iconic compositions.
He later developed Cult Zero, a more graphic and conceptual project that reinterprets icons and memories of the 1980s and 1990s in colorful, ironic canvases. This series has been exhibited in galleries such as Strada Universal Art Gallery and MAC, with curator Max Sabbion supporting its evolution.
In recent years, his research has shifted toward new materials: from jute he moved to plexiglass, giving life to Plexi-Pop, a cycle that explores light, color, and perception through pop subjects reinterpreted with chromatic variations and visual distortions.
Gallery
A journey through the languages and evolutions of Davide Zanella’s painting.
Davide Zanella’s artistic research unfolds through paths that move across different styles and materials.
Each phase represents a moment of transformation—a different way of observing the world and translating it into image.
Throughout his artistic journey, Zanella explores multiple visual languages: from abstract to material abstraction, from figurative to surrealism.
At the same time, he takes his first steps into the Pop world, giving life to early series dedicated to nerd culture and the imagery of comic conventions.
Project Cosplayer is a project developed in collaboration with Giorgia Vecchini, winner of the World Cosplay Championship.
The collection gathers works composed of photographic collages, painted color interventions, material textures, and handcrafted, hand-painted frames decorated with strong and vibrant colors.
The result is a series of canvases that celebrate the cosplay universe through a pop, energetic, and highly contemporary visual language, perfectly aligned with the aesthetics of the cultures that inspired it.
With Cult Zero, Davide Zanella brings to life an explosion of color and nostalgia.
Playful, vivid paintings assemble fragments of collective imagination—cartoon characters, symbols of pop culture, icons of film—transforming them into collages rich with memory and sentiment.
Each work is a mosaic of shared and personal memories, a tribute to a bygone era.
With Plexi-Pop, a new chapter of his research unfolds.
Plexiglass, a glossy and transparent material, replaces jute and becomes the surface where light and color intersect.
Pop and comic-inspired subjects are distorted, recomposed, transfigured: a process that transforms the image into a perceptive experience.
In these works, memory becomes reflection, the surface becomes depth, and painting opens more and more toward introspection.
Events
CULT ZERO was an event evening held in Milan, dedicated to the new languages of contemporary art and their relationship with society, the media, and the collective imagination.
The event took shape through an open discussion led by art historian and critic Massimiliano Sabbion, who guided the audience through an exploration of comic art and its evolution between East and West, from manga and anime to graphic novels and the intersections between art, pop culture, and social media.
The evening was accompanied by a live painting performance by artist Davide Zanella, who was present at the gallery with the exhibition CULT ZERO, where he displayed around ten canvases. The works reflect the artist’s perspective on contemporary languages, intertwining emotions, visual suggestions, and a strong chromatic component, in harmony with the themes addressed during the discussion.
Project Cosplayer was an exhibition event held in September 2022 that brought together pop art and cosplay in an evening dedicated to the encounter between contemporary art and pop culture. The project was born from the meeting between artist Davide Zanella and cosplayer Giudy Chan, with the aim of bringing the world of cosplay into an artistic and exhibition context.
During the event, 12 artworks were presented, inspired by some of the most well-known Italian cosplayers, including Giudy Chan, Morrigan Lynx, Moonchild, Artikleopard, Julia Loki, Panna Cosplay, Daniele Prada, Mr_Cionni, and Giorgia Vecchini, world cosplay champion.
A central element of the evening was the live presence of the cosplayers, who attended the event wearing their costumes. This transformed the exhibition into a unique experience, where visual art and performance converged, strengthening the dialogue between pop art, cosplay, and contemporary imagination.
In December 2025, on the occasion of Miami Art Week, artist Davide Zanella participated in Spectrum Miami, an international contemporary art fair dedicated to independent artists and galleries from around the world.
The event took place in the Wynwood district, one of the main hubs of contemporary art in Miami, and featured a selection of works ranging from painting and sculpture to photography and mixed media. As part of the official circuit of fairs held alongside Art Basel Miami Beach, Spectrum Miami represents an international platform for dialogue and visibility for contemporary artistic research.
Davide Zanella’s participation took place within a global context, strengthening the dialogue between his work and the international artistic landscape.
Process
From inner listening to sharing with the world.
Every artwork is born from a process that intertwines intuition, thought, and material.
For Davide Zanella, painting means first of all listening: observing the world, sensing its vibrations, and transforming them into inner images.
This gives rise to the concept stage, the moment when the idea takes shape and becomes a project.
Then comes creation, where gesture, material, and color meet in a balance between instinct and control.
Finally, there is sharing—the act of showing the world one’s vision, offering the viewer a fragment of oneself and one’s memory.
Press
Press reviews, interviews, and insights into Davide Zanella’s art.
Over time, Davide Zanella’s work has attracted the attention of critics, curators, and specialized publications, which have narrated the evolution of his artistic path.
In this section you will find articles, interviews, and publications that have documented his journey throughout the years.
A broad overview of his presence in the art world—between exhibitions, projects, and collaborations.
Contacts
Every dialogue is a new beginning.
If you wish to learn more about Davide Zanella’s work, explore a project, or simply share a thought, you can write below.
Art is born from encounters, from listening, and from the connections that unite us.