The Italian Valerio Adami was born in Bologna and at the age of 16, in 1951, he was admitted to the Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he studied and painted until 1954. He made his first trip to Paris in 1955 and by the age of 20 had already had the opportunity to meet the artists Roberto Matta and Wilfredo Lam, who would inspire him both in style and content.
This first more expressionistic expression would eventually develop into a painting that was close to synthetism with its color fields divided by black outlines. However, unlike other Synthetists, his subjects are drastically cropped, almost fragmentary, and more reminiscent of Pop art. In the 1970s, Adami began to address political issues in his art. In his paintings, politics merged with European history, philosophy and mythology. Adami also has a strong and vibrant relationship with literature. Since Adami's first solo exhibition in Milan in 1959, he has had many exhibitions around the world, and today his work hangs in many museums as well as in private collections.