A member of the New Roman School in the 1980s and 1990s, Tirelli was trained in set design. The artist’s background, paired with the visual complexity of the layered histories surrounding him in his hometowns of Rome and Spoleto have deeply informed his highly personal and allegorical vocabulary of memories. His works populate a complex visual archive, one that the artist has been systematically building over time since his early childhood. They activate mental realms of cultural recollection, collective memory, and conventional conceptions of value representation through the webs of associations and connotations they are capable of unleashing.

His extensive list of exhibitions, commissions, and participation in collections include Biennale di Venezia; PAC in Milan; XI Quadrennial in Rome; Sidney Biennial; San Paolo Biennial; Prospect ’93 at the Kunsthalle in Frankfurt; Kunsternes Hus, Oslo; Anteniim Taideemusee, Helsinki; the Matildenhöhe in Darmstadt; Kunsthalle in Bielefeld; Modern Art Gallery of Istanbul; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Ankara; Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv; Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Rome; Osservatorio, Fondazione Pescheria – Centro Arti Visive, Pesaro; MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome; La Galleria Nazionale, Rome; MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Farnesina Art Collection, Rome; European Parliament, Art Collection, Bruxelles; MART, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto; Il Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato; Palazzo Fortuny, Venice; Albertina Museum, Vienna; Mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna.