Jago Jacopo Cardillo

Jago is an Italian artist-entrepreneur who works mainly in sculpture and video production.
He was born in Frosinone (Italy) in 1987, where he attended art school and then the Academy of Fine Arts.

At a young age he worked in Greece on Naxos, and in Italy between Rome and Verona.
Today Jago lives in New York, working between USA, China and Italy.

In 2018 he was a guest professor at the New York Academy of Art, where he held a masterclass and a lecture. Since 2016 he has held courses in Italian, Chinese and American schools, universities and academies.

Numerous national and international awards such as the Papal Medal, conferred by Cardinal Ravasi on the occasion of the Prize of the Pontifical Academies, Vatican City in 2010, the Pio Catel Prize in 2015, the Arte Fiera Bologna Public Prize in 2017, the Art Award at Gala de Monte Carlo in 2013, and the investiture as Mastro della Pietra at MarmoMacc 2017.

At the age of 24, on presentation of the art historian Maria Teresa Benedetti, he was selected by professor Vittorio Sgarbi to participate in the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion – Rome – Palazzo Venezia, where he exhibited the marble bust of the then Pope Benedict XVI (2009) for which in the same year he received the Papal Medal.

In 2010 Jago leaves the Academy.

In 2017 he is one of the TEDx Genoa speakers.

One of his most significant work is “Habemus Hominem” (2013) created after the resignation of Pope Ratzinger, after which Jago carves the original sculpture of 2009 again, representing the naked Pontiff.

The work was exhibited in Rome in 2018 in the Carlo Bilotti Museum in Villa Borghese, with a record number of visitors (of which 3,500 only during the presentation).

In 2018, Jago was invited to exhibit at the BIAS, International Biennial of Contemporary Sacred Art and of Human Religions in Palermo.

In 2018, following the exhibition at the international Armory Show in Manhattan, Jago moved to New York to create the work entitled “Figlio Velato” for the city of Naples, permanently exhibited in the Sanità district inside the Chapel of the Church of San Severo fuori le mura.

Jago’s artistic research has its roots in the techniques inherited from the masters of the Renaissance. In contrast with the romantic idea of the starving artist, Jago is determined to give back an entrepreneurial image to the category, always maintaining a lively and direct relationship with the public through the use of social networks.

In 2019, on the occasion of ESA’s Beyond mission, European Space Agencies, Jago is the first artist to send a marble sculpture to the international space station. The sculpture entitled “The First baby”, depicting a baby’s fetus, will return to earth in February 2020 under the custody of mission leader, Luca Parmitano.

Jago has also held personal exhibitions at institutions such as the Crypt of the Basilica dei SS. XII Apostoli (Rome), Umberto Mastroianni Foundation (Arpino), Palazzo Doria Pamphilj (Rome) and HighlineStages (New York).