A leading figure of international Op Art and Kinetic Art, Marina Apollonio was born in Trieste in 1940. The daughter of the art critic and historian Umbro Apollonio, she grew up in a rich intellectual and artistic environment before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice under Giuseppe Santomaso. From the early 1960s onwards, she developed a radical investigation into visual perception, movement and optical phenomena.

Closely associated with the European avant-garde movements of Op Art and Kinetic Art, she joined the international Nova Tendencija (New Tendencies) movement in 1965, exhibiting alongside major figures such as Getulio Alviani, Dadamaino, and the Gruppo N and Gruppo T collectives. Her work quickly became distinguished by its use of elementary geometric forms—particularly the circle—which she regarded as the ideal vehicle for activating the viewer's perception.

Through her celebrated Dinamiche Circolari, aluminium reliefs, rotating structures and immersive environments, Apollonio seeks to transcend the static image. Her compositions of concentric black and white lines generate visual vibrations and illusions of movement, transforming the viewer into an active participant in the work.

International recognition came as early as 1968, when Peggy Guggenheim acquired one of her works for her Venetian collection. Since then, her work has been exhibited at some of the world's leading institutions, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Grand Palais, the New Museum and the Venice Biennale. In 2024, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection devoted the most comprehensive retrospective ever held in Italy to her work, firmly establishing her as one of the central figures in the history of kinetic art.