Ugo la Pietra was born in Bussi sul Tirino, in the province of Pescara, in 1938.

An artist, architect, designer and researcher active in the major area of communication systems since 1962, his work tends to seek the clarity and definition of the relationship between the individual and the environment.

In 1962, together with A. Ferrari, E. Sordini, A. Verga and A. Vermi, he established the Cenobio Group, developing an activity of exhibitions oriented towards the area of painting of sign.

In 1968, he designed and created Audiovisual Environment at the Milan Triennale.

In 1969, he won three painting awards: the I Termoli Award, the II Joan Miró Award and the I Cesare da Sesto Award. He took part in the IV Painting Week at the Johanneum Museum in Graz and devised an urban project for the Campo Urbano event in Como.

In 1970, he was invited to take part in the experimental exhibition of the XXXV Venice Biennale.

In 1971, he designed urban audiovisual tools for Trigon 71 in Graz (Austria).

In 1972, he started taking part in the artistic area known as “New Writing”, contributing a series of works and exhibitions. In 1973, he was a founder member of Global Tools, the first and only grouping of “Radical architects, designers and artists”. In 1978, he was invited to take part in the Venice Biennale in the sections on Art in the social dimension (E. Crispolti), Artistic Cinema (V. Fagone) and Utopia, crisis of architecture. Radical architecture (L.V. Masini). In 1981, he co-curated and did the exhibition design for The Stage Space in Italian Television at the XVI Milan Triennale. He curated the exhibition The Computerised House at the Milan Fair (with G. Bettetini and A. Grasso).

Ugo la Pietra has held more than 900 personal and group shows, taking part in the Venice Biennale in 1970, 1978 and 1980 and in the Milan Triennale in 1968, 1972, 1979-80-81, 1993 and 1996. He has also shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in New York, at the Gallery in Palazzo Galvani in Bologna, at the Neue Galerie in Graz, at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, at the Ragghianti Foundation in Lucca, at the Departmental Museum of Gap, at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne, at the Nordio Museum in Linz, at the Museum of the Permanente in Milan, at the Royal College of Art in London, at the Chaterauroux Biennale, at the Albisola Biennale, at the Masterpieces exhibition in Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, at the Umberto Mastroianni Foundation in Arpino, at the Oberdan Space in Milan (Italian Cinema Library), at the Villa Croce Museum in Genoa, at the Milan Triennale and at the Mudima Foundation in Milan.

Ugo la Pietra won the 1st prize at the Festival del Cinema in Nancy in 1975 and the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award in 1979.