Alfio Bonanno was born in Milo (Etna), Sicily in 1947. In the early 1950's his family immigrated to Australia, where he studiedpainting. In 1965 he returned to Sicily. After working six years in Rome, Bonanno moved to the Island of Langeland in Denmark in 1975.

A pioneer of environmental art and a representative of the European development of Land Art or Art in Nature, Alfio Bonanno is a site-specific, outdoor installation artist who has been creating large-scale sculptures within selected, natural environments for the past 35 years.
The symbiosis between art, nature and ecology is an important aspect of his work, as is his role as artist, consultant and lecturer.

In 1985 his Sound Year Installation at the Miró Museum in Barcelona, Spain, a collaboration with Danish composer Gunner Møller Pedersen, was seen as a breakthrough in environmental art.

It was on his initiative and with him as chairman that Tickon, Tranekær International Centre for Art and Nature was created on the Danish Island of Langeland in 1990.

In 2000 L.R. Jensen and T.K. Madsen with support from the Danish Film Institute and Danish Video workshop produced "Fragments of a Life",a documentary on Alfio Bonanno and his work.

In 2005 he was awarded Hydro Texaco`s "Friend of the Tree" Prize.

In June 2006, Alfio Bonanno was awarded on behalf of the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Campi, The Order OSSI (Ordine Stella della Solidarietá Italiana).

Since the late 1970's he has worked in many countries in natural and urban landscapes with site specific projects both with large structures of natures own materials and with conceptual acts.

Selected installations and exhibitions include:
Trondheim Art Museum, Norway; Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense, Denmark; Arte Sella, Art Nature Biennial, Italy; European Art Nature Triennial, Denmark; Botanical Garden, Copenhagen, Denmark; The South Carolina Botanical Garden, Clemson, USA; 1984 The Danish Sculpture Biennial, Denmark; Represented at the LakeGarden of the Louisiana Museum of Modem Art, Denmark; Cedarhurst Sculpture Park and Mitchell Museum, Mt.Vernon, Illinois, USA; Sameura Forest Park Sculpture Trail, Tosa-Cho, Shikoku, Japan;Art of Bamboo, Nitiprayan , Java, Indonesia; Artsummer 2002, KunstNaturLandschaft,Gehren/Niederlausitz, Germany; 2002 Sculpture Biennial "Nature s Urbaines", Fontenay-sous-Bois, France; 2003 "Shore/Lines", Lake Simcoe,Barrie, Canada; "Ratio Naturalis", Aahus Kunstbygning, Denmark; 2004, The Danish Ministry of the Environment commissioned Bonanno to create "Himmelhøj",anon-traditional Playground for people of all ages consisting of four major site specific Installations, Vestamager Nature Center, Denmark.2005, "Målselv Varde", Monumental Site Specific Sculpture, Olsborg, Norway; 2007, "ARK", Site specific sculpture commissioned by the Natural World Museum, USA for the International Climate change exhibition, Nobel Peace Center, Oslo; 2008 Representing Denmark at the Art Ii Biennial, Finland.