Franco Marinai grew up in Florence (Italy) where he was part of “Gruppo Stanza”, a group of six artists committed to political satire by means of silkscreen printing and photography. After receiving a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Florence, he moved to New York where he turned to film making, frequently showing his experimental films in some of the mythical venues of the East Village and Soho. Winner of the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1988, he was awarded the Jerome Foundation Filmmaking Fellowship in 1989. He has been twice the recipient of The New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in the category of filmmaking (1989, 2005). In the past decade, he has expanded his artistic activity by devoting time to printmaking and to producing artist’s books in very limited editions. His books and prints have been exhibited in solo and group shows both in the US and in Europe.