Ophélie Napoli (b. 1998, Bari, Italy) is a French-Italian artist whose work explores the tension between human impulse and the systems we impose on ourselves and others. This conflict manifests in physical and emotional space, which she seeks to reconcile through elemental materials and repetitive gestures.

As she reflects on belonging and her multicultural background, Napoli draws connections between the micro and macro: iron flows through our veins, powers our beating hearts, and arrives on Earth as meteorites. Found in both Scottish and tropical soils, it moves beneath our feet and guides bees across the planet via its magnetic field. These connections remind her that we are part of a larger system; one that moves us in unpredictable directions.

As we act as agents of both creation and decay, our expansion is reflected by rust, rot, and consumption. Perhaps our destructive excess is part of a greater ecological cycle. There is a certain ironic poetry in our quest for balance while charging for the stars. Stillness vs. intensity is a paradox she finds within her.

Through a visceral engagement with materials such as fabric, wax, rope, and paint, Napoli repeats gestures of care and violence: stitching, wrapping, binding, smothering, healing and asphyxiating. Her process is an intimate confrontation with matter, disorder, and control.

Her inspiration and research are drawn from nature, mythology, post-minimalism, sci-fi and punk. She also collaborates with subcultural music locations; spaces that resist rigid systems and allow her to exist, create, and belong outside of societal structures.

Education

• 2022 MFA, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, UK

Solo Exhibition

• 2023 My Guts on Your Table, Keller, Zeughausstrasse 31, Zürich, Switzerland
  • This exhibition explored the limbo-like state of spiritual beings in human experience, interpreting the gallery as a passage. Positioned between three closed doors, the space became a room between rooms, where the spiritual and ethereal were contained by gravity and decay. The show questioned the clinical nature of the white exhibition space, viewing it as a surgical room for dissecting the artist, revealing emotional intensity and new life from bodily disintegration.

Exhibitions and Collaborations

• 2025 Waking Life Festival, Crato, Portugal (with Antonin Trézères)
  • Official pictures to be released.
• 2025 Selected Artist for PIT Ginger Beer Label, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 2024 Waking Life Festival, Crato, Portugal (with Antonin Trézères)
• 2023 Artist Residency with sabl.live, live studio broadcast / performances, August 18–25
  • Over the course of a week, sabl cameras provided 24/7 live security camera views from the studio, showcasing Ophélie Napoli's sculptural practice focusing on the coexistence of organic/random behaviors within structural forms, combining artificial materials with chaotic forms to challenge anthropocentric views and embrace collective wounds through destruction and repair.
• 2023 Aux Abris / Sabl, Avenue dʼOuchy 6, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 27–June 8
• 2023 Berghain Flyer Artwork, Berghain, Berlin, Germany, March
• 2022 ECA Graduate Show 2022, ECA Main Building, Edinburgh, UK, June
• 2022 Bigger Than Life (Smaller Than Usual), thebox.gallery, Edinburgh, UK, March
  • Presented 10 miniature works by ECA graduate students in Edinburgh’s smallest contemporary art space.
• 2022 Barnacle Dust and Amber Rocks, ECA Sculpture Court, Edinburgh, UK, March 25
• 2022 Spare Rib - Paradise Lost, The Caves, Edinburgh, UK, February 3
• 2019 Eclectique x ArtBeiTon, Griessmühle, Berlin, Germany, November 14

Bibliography

• 2022 Interview with Iona Lowe for Wires, October