Luca Massimo Barbero was born in Turin in 1963. When he was almost twenty he moved to Venice where he graduated at Ca' Foscari in History and Visual Arts Criticism under the supervision of Giuseppe Mazzariol, with a dissertation on Alberto Savinio. A scholar of modern and contemporary art, editor, writer and photographer, he collaborated with the most important artists of our century, dealing with projects and exhibitions by Jean Michel Basquiat, and New York graffiti art, Nan Goldin, Keith Haring, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Shirin Neshat, Luigi Ontani and many more. Since 2002, he has been the first Italian working as curator at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Since 2013, he has directed the Institute of History of Art in Venice and the Foundation Giorgio Cini. From 2009 to 2011, he directed MACRO, the Museum for contemporary art of Rome. He also teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, the Holden School and the Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia.