Born in Catanzaro, October 7th, 1918, Mimmo Rotella became prominent at the end of the 1950's with his research into the field of the figurative: collages and ripped posters are incorporated into his early works of art. After moving to Rome in 1949, he accomplishes his first Phonetic Poems. Once back in Italy, he worked in an informal environment, and produced his famous "Decollages", from torn posters from the walls of the city. In 1951 he completed his experiments in the field of photography and created montages using various materials.

At the beginning of the 1960's, he started to use the images within the posters, rather than the reverse side, and became interested in the casualness of overlapping, and in this way, explored the origins of Pop Art. In 1961 he was invited by Pierre Restany to participate in the group called the Nouveau Realistes.

After lengthy trips abroad, in 1980 he finally settled in Milan, where in the same year he presented his Coperture (the Coverings) in the showrooms of Studio Marconi. From 1987 onwards, he created Sovrapitture (overpaintings), pictorial and figurative interpretations on posters produced on metal panels, which he also exhibited at the Studio Marconi, accompanied by a catalogue by Restany and Barry Schwabsky. In 1990, he participated in the exhibition called Art and Pub at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the High and Low exhibition at the Musuem of Modern Art in New York. In 1994, he was invited to the Italian Metamorphosis show at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and in 1996, his works were shown again at the Centre Pompidou, as part of the Face a L'histoire Exhibition. In 1997, he dedicated a series of paintings to Federico Fellini, using the posters designed for Fellini's films.

He currently lives and works in Milan.