Marcello Morandini was born in Mantua on May 15, 1940 and moved to Varese in l947. He studied at the Brera Academy, working at the same time in a professional studio in Milan. These were the years of his first sculptures. In 1964 he first opened a studio of graphic works in Varese, then one in Milan, and then one in Genoa together with Eugenio Carmi. He then elaborated his first design projects for Gabbianelli and Kartell and worked for Bompiani in collaboration with Umberto Eco.
In Genoa he planned the set-up of the “Fair of African Maritime Countries ” (Fiera dei paesi africani del mare) and studied the renovation of the New La Bertesca Gallery (Nuova Galleria la Bertesca) of which he was a founding member. This Gallery published his first monograph on the occasion of the exhibition of his works which he held there under the care of Tommaso Trini. In the same year he exhibited in a hall reserved for him personally at the 24th Venice Art Biennial (XXIV Biennale di Venezia). In 1969 he made a plan for his own house in Varese, where in the following year, he also transferred his studio, and where he taught for several years at the local school of art( liceo artistico).
In 1972 he held his first retrospective exhibition at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover. This was the beginning of a very active collaboration with German museums, galleries, and industries, particularly with Rosenthal in Selb. In 1977, at the Municipal Museums of Varese (Musei Civici di Varese), he organized the second “International Symposium of Studies on the Art of Construction” (Simposio Internazionale di Studi di Arte Costruttiva) based on the concept of the serial nature of art. In 1982 he received a scholarship from DAAD for a three-month stay in Berlin and was invited, together with Attilio Marcolli, to the Documenta Urbana in Kassel.
From 1995 to 1997 he was a lecturer on art and design at the Sommer Akademie in Salzburg and at the Sommer Akademie in Plauen in Germany.
Since 1997 he has been teaching at the Canton School in Lausanne, and for three years he directed the International Museum of Ceramic Design in Cerro di Laveno. Since 1994 he has been serving on the jury at the Design Zentrum in Essen.
In 2000 the city of Varese entrusted him with a study for its main square. In 2001 he set up, together with Maria Teresa Barisi, the editorial design centre “Marienza”. In 2002 he held an exhibition/conference at the Lusiada University in Lisbon and worked for the firm Brockmann in Bottrop, studying for them new offices and new products. In this same year the Quadrat Museum “Josef Albers” of Bottrop purchased one of his bigger sculptures for their entrance.
The art and design exhibition, held in 2002 at Lorenzelli Arte in Milan, held deliberately in concomitance with the events of the Salone del Mobile (Furniture Exhibition), as well as the collaboration with Abitare Baleri, officially marked his renewed professional interest in Italy. Another one-man exhibition in Milan at the Naviglio Modern Art Gallery was held in 2003, once again in concomitance with the Salone del Mobile (Furniture Exhibition).
In the Spring of 2006, five years since his last show there, Morandini will once again hold an exhibition at the Castle of Masnago in Varese, with 40 new art works: designed panels, tridimensional structures, and wooden sculptures, together with a few pieces of furniture designed in 2000 for Abitare Baleri in Bergamo and for Longoni in Cantù. After Varese, this exhibition, together with pieces borrowed from other museums, was shown in Waldenbuch, near Stutt-gart on May 20, 2006 for the inauguration of the new Ritter Museum.