Roberto Maria Lino was born in Naples, Italy, in 1996. He lives and works in Rome,
where he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts. Focusing on the human body and the histories of medicine and industry, Lino weaves multimedia abstractions that probe the trauma, healing, and fragility of human experience. Throughout childhood, starting at age four, Lino accompanied his father, a Neapolitan heart surgeon, into the operating theater to observe open-heart surgeries.
This unique exposure has profoundly shaped Lino's thematic exploration of the human body.
The materiality behind Lino's practice is as compelling as the narratives he creates. Repurposing medical garments and ephemera, he breathes new life into hospital detritus, sparking dialogues about medicine and its commodification. This integration of recycled materials raises questions about the life cycle of hospitals and the impact of industrialized medicine. In each Sutura , Lino unveils a corporeal landscape. The red lines, resembling veins or arteries, carve through the neutral canvas, suggesting the network of the human cardiovascular system. The stark contrast between the vivid red and the sterile white fabric recalls the raw intensity of life coursing through the clinical and often impersonal world of medical treatment.
The way materials are stitched and layered mirrors the delicate, precise, and lifesaving nature of heart surgeries. The stitched webs in each Sutura resemble the surgical scars left on flesh, but also on the psyche, symbolizing the personal and societal wounds inflicted by systems that can be as healing as they are hurtful. The overlapping and stitching together of fabrics suggest a process of repair and recovery, but also hint at a piecemeal approach to healthcare, where the system's gaps and overlaps leave visible traces, both on those it serves and on the world from which it draws its resources. The red threads act as a visual metaphor for life's blood, a universal symbol for passion, pain, and the essential connections that bind humanity.