spaccate il legno: io sono lì;
sollevate una pietra,
ed è là che mi troverete.
jona lepori (b. 1993) lives and works between lugano and locarno, switzerland.
after studying graphic design at csia lugano, he began his career as a freelance designer before shifting toward tattooing in 2014. over time, his drawings transformed into ritual forms—totems, vessels, symbolic architectures—that echo both the body and the sacred. since 2019, he has been translating these forms into physical space, experimenting with ceramic, plaster, concrete, steel, wood, and resin. his work continues to explore the intersection of material weight and metaphysical presence—creating objects that hold stillness while pointing quietly beyond themselves.
practice
jona lepori’s practice unfolds as a quiet dialogue between material and presence, between the tangible and the felt. sculptures, surfaces, and spatial bodies become vessels of stillness, gesturing beyond their form toward states of attention and remembrance. each piece is both artifact and invocation: a site for pause, for sensing, for ritual encounter. rather than beginning with emotion, his work arises from an intuitive pull toward materials, balance, and the unseen connections they might reveal. moving fluidly across drawing, building, carving, tattooing, and composing, lepori’s explorations span hand-thrown ceramics, cast cement, and surface interventions in plaster, concrete, and steel. he also works architecturally, shaping interiors through rhythm, clarity, and restraint. his atelier in brione s/m.—a former old cellar—serves as both sanctuary and laboratory: a space for artistic inquiry and meditative presence.
publications
included in swiss tattoo (2022, helvetiq)
a book on contemporary tattoo artists in switzerland