Biography
A painter and printmaker with a deep interest in sculpture and ceramics, he was born in Livorno in 1936. He created numerous artist's books in collaboration with friends who were art lovers, poets and writers. He was also an active promoter and organiser of cultural events in public and private spaces, while cultivating a passion for Digital Art and editorial graphics.
Over his career he produced around a hundred works, including installations, paintings, artist's books, drawings, engravings, fine-art prints and sculptures. It is a body of work rooted in a lifelong inquiry into themes such as the environment, memory, conflict and poetry. His path begins with his first works of the 1960s, devoted to the changing face of the city, and moves on to those of the 1970s, where industrialisation emerges as a powerful theme. Later, between 1986 and 1996, matter and form take centre stage in works such as Affioramenti and Terre di Cuoio.
His development led him to create key works at the turn of the millennium, such as Osservando il pianeta (1998), Giochi di Guerra (1999) and A futura memoria (1999). In the 2000s he began the cycle of Artist's Books and the one on the Metamorphoses of Language, followed in 2006 by works devoted to the drama of Emigration.
His creative urgency never faded: during the Covid-19 pandemic he portrayed a Suspended Time through numerous large-format works and artist's books on the same theme. Also notable are his site-specific installations, including La caduta dell’angelo ribelle, I libri luminosi (2019) and, finally, a large scenographic installation devoted to the world of bees and their vital role for the planet, which powerfully expresses the environmental commitment that has always marked Lombardi's poetics.
He died in Livorno on 8 September 2025.