Vittorio Messina studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Architecture in Rome. A conceptual artist, from his early experiences in the 1970s and early 1980s, he has focused his research on habitat themes and has taken on, in the vast iconography of his work, the theme of the “cell” as a synonym of the “room” and a basic element of architecture, especially urban construction. Together with the themes inherent to language and its ontology, in the extreme multimedia variety of his research, Messina has plumbed the thought, materials and modes, and highlighted the ‘abuse’ consumed by art in relation to the degradation and environmental and social issues in progress and in dramatic progression in the metropolitan peripheries and the global environnement.

He has exhibited his works in many international galleries and museums. These include Palazzo Taverna in Rome, with Maria Nordman, Bruce Naumann and Luca Patella; the Museo Pecci in Prato; the Moltkerei Werkstatt in Köln; the Tucci Russo Gallery in Turin; the Kunstverein in Kassel; the Victoria Miro Gallery in London; the Shimada Gallery in Yamaguch; the Kunstverein in Dusseldorf; the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Bologna; the Neue National Galerie in Berlin; the Obal art Centar in Sarajevo; the Museum of Erfurt; the Leeds Museum; the Henry Moore Foundation; the GAM in Turin; the Maschio Angioino and Castel dell'Ovo in Naples; the Apexart in New York; the Ujadzovsky Museum in Warsaw; the Cavallerizza Reale in Turin; the DKM Foundation in Duisburg; the Insel Ombroich Museum in Dusseldorf; the Museum of the Aurelian Walls in Rome; the Kunsthalle in Goeppingen; the Museo Riso in Palermo; the MACRO in Rome. the Palazzo Collicola Museum in Spoleto.

Recently, - as early as 2023, the artist places his work in the research in which language and modernity are formed in the common unpredictability of our space-time.

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The artist's works, in addition to private collections, can be found in numerous museums and public collections, such as the collection of the Farnesina in Rome, the GAM museum in Turin, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bologna, In France the de Midy Pyrénées collection, the Münster Land museum in Germany, the collection of Palazzo Fabroni in Pistoia, the Shimada collection in Japan, the National Accademy HangZhou P.R. of China, the PAC in Milan, the museum of Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto, and finally The Riso museum in Palermo.