After attending art school in Como and graduating from the Brera Academy in 1984, Cingolani became part of Milan's underground scene in 1978, influencing a shift in his artistic style.
[2] In 1978 he moved to Milan, where he got into the local underground scene, where art mixed with fashion and punk music,[3] hanging out with fellow artists such as Alessandro Pessoli, Massimo Kaufmann, and Stefano Arienti.
[4] In addition to referencing history of art, literature and sacred texts, Cingolani began to include socio-political commentaries in his work, and address how events are portrayed in the media.
[5] Some of Cingolani's most well-known paintings are the series related to news events from the late 1970s/early 1980s, such as the series of Le Interviste (the Interviews, 1990-1993), L’Attentato al Papa (the Pope's Assassination Attempt, 1990) and Il ritrovamento del corpo di Aldo Moro (The Discovery of the Body of Aldo Moro, 1989).
[8] In 2011, on the occasion of Cingolani's 50th anniversary, an exhibition in three distinct institutional sites (Broletto, Pinacoteca Civica, Biblioteca Comunale) was organized in his birthplace, Como.