Luigi Ontani (Grizzana Morandi, 24 November 1943) is an Italian multidisciplinary artist, known as a painter, photographer and sculptor.

Ontani began his artistic career in the 1970s when he became known for his tableau vivants: photographed and videotaped performances in which he presented himself in different ways: from Pinocchio to Dante, Saint Sebastian to Bacchus.

From the beginning his photography has been characterized by some particular elements: the subject is always the artist himself, who uses his own body and face to personify historic, mythological, literary and popular themes; the chosen formats are usually miniature and gigantography, and each work is considered unique.

Ontani has not used all these different techniques as ends in themselves but as occasions to experiment new possibilities and formulate new variations of the themes and subjects that interest him the most: his own "transhistoric" travel through myth, the mask, the symbol and iconographic representation.

[1] In 1982, Ontani's work was featured in the exhibition, "Italian Art Now: An American Perspective" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, alongside other Italian artists, Sandro Chia, Enzo Cucchi, Gilberto Zorio, Giuseppe Penone, Nino Longobardi, and Vettor Pisani.