Francesco Clemente was born in 1952 in Naples, Italy. He went to Rome to study architecture, where he met his friend and mentor Alighiero e Boetti and decided to focus on art instead. 

Clemente is greatly influenced by mysticism, traditional art and the culture of India. His signature subjects are the human form, particularly women’s bodies; his own image; sexuality; myth and spirituality; non-Western symbols; and dreamlike visions. His paintings rife with erotic imagery of mutilated body parts, gesturing amorphous figures often depicted in rich colors, as well as a series of contorted self-portraits. His work conveys an uncanny and unabashed intimacy, despite being large in scale. His gouache paintings and pastel drawings are especially noted for their intense and arcane quasi-religious content that has grown increasingly surreal in his later works. 

Today, Clemente considered as one of the leaders of Neo-Expressionism. His work is shown in major museums such as the Guggenheim Museum, both in New York and in Bilbao; Museum of Modern Art, New York and Tate Modern, London.

Clemente lives and works in New York and in Varanasi, India.