The company Bertozzi & Casoni was established in 1980 in Imola by Giampaolo Bertozzi (Borgo Tossignano, Bologna, 1957) and by Stefano Dal Monte Casoni (Lugo di Romagna, Ravenna, 1961 - 2023). Already during their early studies at the State Institute of Art for Ceramics in Faenza their interest focused on sculptural experimentation and they directed their seek towards a dialogue with the great artistic tradition.
For Bertozzi & Casoni ceramic constitutes the opportunuty to realize painted sculptures and the occasion to finally overcome the idea that links this material exclusively to the field of applied arts. With their firts creations made of fine polychrome majolica, they start to represent a "new ceramic style"in an attempt to bridge the existing gap between this expressive art, considered a minor element of the sector, and other forms of art.
In 1983 starts their collaboration with Franco and Roberta Calarota with "Ars Decorativa", a group show held that same year in Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m.
From 1985 to 1989 they partnered Cooperativa Ceramica di Imola as researchers at the Centre for Ceramic Experimentation and Research that will sponsor Bertozzi&Casoni's interventions realized in Tokio (Tama New Town, 1989-90) and in Imola with the large panel "Say it with flowers" affixed on the external wall of the General Hospital.
From 1983 and 1994 they etablished contacts with the design world: they designed the "Armchair Ercolano" for Dino Gavina, they started to collaborate with Dilmos space in Milan and partecipated to various editions of Abitare il Tempo in Verona and of the Milan Triennial exhibition.
If their early sculptural production was characterized by small dimensions, in the 1990s Bertozzi & Casoni started creating on a large scale, reaching new technical and dimensional peaks. In this way Bertozzi & Casoni closed the chapter of painted majolica and started experimenting the almost exclusive use of materials and technologies derived from industrial production. Pictorial virtuosity is abandoned in favour of an objective representation that closely portrays the chosen subjects. The conceptual sphere of their work started embodying themes that will constitute the theoric fil rouge of their artistic production with the reflection on the categories of Vanitas and of Memento Mori. These themes will usually appear as fantastic transfiguration realized through an hyper-realistic and objective way: the great turn of events is marked with the new chapter "contemplations of the present" where the attention is focused on blocking into a snap-shot all what is fleeting and transient in order to raise up the object as icon and symbol of human condition.
In 2004 they were invited to exhibit their work at Tate Liverpool and at the 14th Rome Quadriennale exhibition. In 2007 a personal exhibition was held at Ca' Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice and the following year other two personal exhibitions were organised at the Sforza Castle, Milan, and at the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza.In 2011 they exhibited their work at the Italian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. In 2013 personal exhibitions were held at the Beelden aan Zee Museum at The Hague, and in 2014 their work were displayed in the monumental halls of Palazzo Té in Mantua and in the Mambo Museum in Bologna. Among other many exhibitions dedicated to Bertozzi & Casoni there is the one held in palazzo Poggi (Bologna) and the one in the Morandi Museum (Bologna) in 2019. On 16 December 2017 was opened The Bertozzi & Casoni Museum in Cavallerizza Ducale (Sassuolo), a permanent exhibition where converge a selection of the most significant works of their artistic production.