Vanessa Beecroft was born at the Italian city of Genoa in 1969, she spent her childhood at Lake Garda.
She had the wish to become an artist from an early point on. Between 1983 and 1987 Vanessa Beecroft studied at the Civico Liceo Artistico Nicolò Barabino in her hometown; afterwards she enrolled for painting classes at the Accademia Ligustica Di Belle Arti in Genoa. Between 1988 and 1993 Vanessa Beecroft studied stage design at the Accademia Di Belle Arti Di Brera in Milan. This final stage of her studies would be decisive for her artistic development.
In 1993, after she had completed her studies, Vanessa Beecroft relocated to New York and soon made a name for herself as a performance artist. Her works were soon shown at exhibitions in the U.S.A., Germany, Japan and France. In 1997 Vanessa Beecroft participated in the Venice Biennale and her international reputation grew accordingly.
In her performances Vanessa Beecroft often works with beautiful bodies. Her aesthetically staged female, at times also professional male models, that move and act in accordance with a strict choreography, must be regarded in a tradition of the "tableaux vivants" from the 18th century in France. The artist merely acts as director and does not display her body.
Works by Vanessa Beecroft, who also creates paintings and graphic works, have been shown in important international exhibitions since the mid 1990s. New York, Cologne, Vienna, Milan, Venice and London are among cities she exhibited in.
Vanessa Beecroft lives and works on Long Island/New York.