Picture preview: No Jokes Please, We're Italian

Mao, by Stefano Mezzaroma (Stefano Mezzaroma)

Next week Milan-based Stefano Mezzaroma’s first UK exhibition opens at The Italian Cultural Institute in London. No Jokes Please: We’re Italian features works lampooning well-known multinational brands, and will be popular with fans of contemporary pop art.

At only 27, Stefano already has a successful career as both a DJ and an artist. He began experimenting with new media like spray painting, digital manipulation and collage. He draws inspiration from pop artists - such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring - and the constant bombardment of advertisements. His work has grown into a unique perspective on the societal effects and the collision between politics, branding, and marketing.

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Mezzaroma is well-known in the House music scene, and has already shown at exhibitions across the world, from Italy to Monaco to Russia, and now London. Collectors of his work include the Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

Works in the exhibition include the logo for Jurassic Park with “Microsoft” written instead of the film’s title, and a depiction of infamous dictator Mao Tse Tung with the Google logo altered to include Chinese stars – an ironic statement about the country’s free speech policy.

No Jokes Please: We’re Italian, 29 February – 14 March 2012, icilondon.esteri.it/IIC_Londra