PAOvisual artist

Paola Pandalone,
known artistically as PAO.

Paola Pandalone, known artistically as PAO, is a visual artist whose practice centres on drawing and on the expressive possibilities of the point, line and repetition.

Working primarily in black and white, she creates her images entirely by hand using the stippling technique — a meticulous process in which thousands of individual points gradually construct each figure.

Her work emerges from an exploration of the inner world and of experiences that are difficult to represent directly. Identity, perception, vulnerability and transformation recur throughout her practice. Her figures inhabit an ambiguous space where the recognisable meets the strange, allowing each image to suggest different emotional states without imposing a single interpretation.

Her academic background in Psychology and Criminology has informed her interest in human behaviour and in the processes that exist behind what we choose to reveal. In her drawings, the process itself carries meaning: the accumulation of points, together with the time and precision required to construct each image, becomes an integral part of the work.

PAO's recent trajectory includes the selection of her work for SWISSARTEXPO 2026, features in art publications and platforms, and her inclusion in Artàporter's 100 Best Emerging Artists, curated by Alyona Kosareva.

She is currently developing a series of drawings that continues to explore identity, vulnerability and the complexity of the inner world through an intimate, manual and contemplative practice.