Emiliano Ponzi is an Italian illustrator, visual artist, and author based in New York.
His work spans publishing, editorial, fashion, and advertising, characterized by a distinctive visual language that combines conceptual depth with graphic precision.
His clients include Apple, Tiffany & Co., MoMA New York, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Lamborghini, Le Monde, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Pantone, Martini, Hyundai, Pirelli, TIM, Barilla, Moleskine, San Pellegrino, Android, Airbnb, Lavazza, Bulgari, Penguin Books, Esquire, Armani, Uniqlo, Belmond, Loro Piana, Ducati, and Zenith.
Ponzi has received numerous international honors, including Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators of New York, the ADC Young Guns Award, the prestigious ADC Gold Cube, as well as the IDA and MGIP Awards. His work has also been recognized by American Illustration, Print, and HOW International Design. He contributed to The New Yorker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning project “In the Dark”
He is the author and illustrator of four books: The Journey of the Penguin (2015), celebrating the anniversary of Penguin Books; The Great New York Subway Map (2017) for MoMA; American West (2018), a travelogue through the American West first serialized on The New Yorker’s Instagram and later published by Corraini; and Chronicle from the Red Zone(2020), documenting Italy’s first lockdown, originally published as a column in The Washington Post and later as a limited edition by Tapirulan.
He has lectured at institutions including MoMA New York, the Italian Cultural Institutes of London, Madrid, Berlin, Pretoria, and New York, Triennale Milano, SIPicturebook in Seoul, the Web Marketing Festival in Rimini, Visual Playground in Bucharest, CCBF in Shanghai, and the School of Visual Arts in New York.
His solo and group exhibitions include Farnesina Permanent Collection (Rome), Open File (Shanghai), Triennale Milano, MAMbo (Bologna), GAMeC (Bergamo), The New York Times’s 7 Gallery (New York), the Italian Consulates in New York and London, the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia (Brazil), NLB Galerija Avla (Ljubljana), Galerie Treize-Dix (Paris), and Mixed Melt Global (Seoul).
Recent installations include Under the Surface, commissioned by Salone del Mobile for Milan Design Week 2024; Flower Up at the Glo Hub for Fuorisalone 2024; and Believe at the K11 Museum in Shanghai.
Recent solo exhibitions include The Dreamer: Stories from Another World at Sun Ke Villa (Shanghai, 2023); In Principio era la Fine at Marco Rossi Artecontemporanea (Pietrasanta, Milan, Verona, and Turin, 2023); and Together at Philippe Labaune Gallery (New York, 2024).
His latest essay, Work in Progress, was published by Corraini in Italian and English and presented at Rizzoli New York in November 2024.