Piero Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo (July 13, 1933 – February 6, 1963) was an Italian artist best known for his ironic approach to avant-garde art.

[2][3] His work eschews normal artist's materials, instead using everything from rabbit fur to human excrement in order to "tap mythological sources and to realize authentic and universal values".

His early work was broadly gestural, and showed the influence of Milanese proponents of Nuclear Art, such as Enrico Baj.

Influences include earlier yet still active artists like Marcel Duchamp and contemporaneous practitioners Ben Vautier and Yves Klein.

[5] Manzoni's work changed irrevocably after visiting Yves Klein's exhibition 'Epoca Blu' at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, January 1957.

Initially favouring canvases coated in gesso (1957–1958), he also worked with kaolin, another form of white clay often used in the production of porcelain.

[11] As well as Yves Klein, these works showed the influence of Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri and the American artist Robert Rauschenberg, who had painted neutral white canvases in 1951.

Manzoni founded the Azimut Gallery in Milan in 1959 with the artist Enrico Castellani, and staged a series of revolutionary exhibitions of multiples.

Although the invitation named the Gallery Azimuth as the location of the opening, the actual event took place at the Studio Filmgiornale Sedi in Milan.

The discrepancy between the location on the invitation and the film studio where the event was recorded further complicates the role and space of art as it was expected to be seen.

[5] Contemporaneously with the Bodies of Air (Corpi D'Aria), Manzoni produced the Artist's Breaths (Fiato d'Artista), a series of red, white or blue balloons, inflated and attached to a wooden base inscribed "Piero Manzoni- Artist's Breath".

[15] In the following years, the cans have spread to various art collections all over the world and netted large prices, far outstripping inflation.

Various other experimental pieces by Manzoni included trying to create a mechanical animal as a moving sculpture and using solar energy as a power source.

[18] His work has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1991), Castello di Rivoli-Museo d'Arte Contemporanea (1992), the Serpentine Gallery, London (1998), at the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples (2007), curated by Germano Celant, and in 2019 "Piero Manzoni: Materials of His Time" at Hauser & Wirth's Los Angeles and then New York City galleries.

- Piero Manzoni, edited by G. Celant, exhibition catalogue (MADRE Museo di Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naple), Electa, Milan, 2007.

- Piero Manzoni 1933–1963, edited by F. Gualdoni and R. Pasqualino di Marineo, exhibition catalogue, (Palazzo Reale, Milan), Skira, Geneva-Milan, 2014.

- Merda d'artista Künstlerscheisse Merde d'artiste Artist's Shit, Carlo Cambi Editore, Poggibonsi, 2021.