Born in 1954 in Montecchio Emilia, where he lives, Omar Galliani studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and teaches painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara.

In the early 1980s, he was a leading exponent of the Anacronisti and Magico Primario group. He took part in three editions of the Venice Biennale and had a solo room in the ‘Arte allo specchio’ section at the 1984 Biennale. Also in the 1980s, he participated in the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil and the 12th Paris Biennial. He has exhibited at the Museums of Modern Art in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, at the Hayward Gallery in London, at two editions of the Quadriennale in Rome, at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna, at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, and at the Frankfurt and Berlin galleries.

In the 1990s, his work was exhibited at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in Arizona, Marian Locks in Philadelphia and Arnold Herstand Gallery in New York. The artist also presented Feminine Countenances at New York University and in 2000 Aurea at the Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. He then exhibited at the Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan, the Galleria Civica in Modena, the Museum of Modern Art in Budapest, the Palacio Foz in Lisbon, and the PAC in Milan.

In 2003, he was invited to the Prague Biennale and the first edition of the Beijing Biennale, where he won first prize with three large works from the New Anatomies cycle.

In 2005, at the State Archives in Turin as part of the Grande Disegno Italiano exhibition, one of his drawings (5 x 6.3 metres), graphite on poplar, was compared with the face of the angel by Leonardo, preparatory to the Virgin of the Rocks, exhibited at the Biblioteca Reale. At Palazzo Magnani in Reggio Emilia, he presented his personal exhibition Nuove anatomie (New Anatomies). Also in 2005, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Guadalajara (Mexico) inaugurated his solo exhibition entitled Nuovi fiori nuovi santi and Spazio Mazzotta in Milan presented La figlia era nuda.

Since 2006, a solo exhibition of his work entitled Disegno Italiano has been touring the most important Modern and Contemporary Art Museums in China, from Shanghai, Chengdu, Jinan, Xian, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Ningbo, to Nanjing, Dalian, Tientsin, and will conclude the tour at the end of 2007 with a major exhibition at the Capital Museum in Beijing. Also in 2006, the University and Museum of Caracas hosted a solo exhibition of his work entitled Disegnarsi, which was taken to the Hassan Museum in Rabat in April 2007.

Il Grande Disegno Italiano, the great Italian drawing exhibited in Turin in 2005, was then presented at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan as part of the exhibition La bellezza nel 2006, then in Verona, Palazzo della Ragione, as part of the exhibition Il settimo splendore.

June 2007 saw the opening of the exhibition Tra Oriente e Occidente. Omar Galliani and the Great Italian Design in China at the headquarters of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, included among the collateral events of the 52nd Venice Biennale. The event, realised under the patronage of the Chinese Embassy in Italy, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, will see the presence of the Association of Chinese Artists and the collaboration of the museums of Shanghai, Ningbo, Dalian, Xian, Hanghzou, Jinan, Chengdu and Wuhan.