Luciano Castelli was born in Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1951. He studied at the University of Applied Arts there from 1968 to 1969, followed by an apprenticeship as a sign painter. In 1972 he participated in documenta 5, gaining his international breakthrough. From 1978 to 1987 Castelli lived in West Berlin, where he exhibited at the Galerie am Moritzplatz and was assigned to the Neue Wilde group. Castelli has since lived and worked in 2008 in Zurich, Paris and Normandy.