Born in Rocca di Papa, Italy, in 1955, the painter Pizzi Cannella turned away from naturalistic depiction at an early age, but his works have always retained a certain representationalism.

From 1975, Cannella studied painting with Alberto Zivri at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and at the Institute of Philosophy at La Sapienza University. His first solo exhibition took place in 1977 at the La Stanza Gallery. In 1984, together with Bruno Ceccobelli and Marco Tirello, he moved into a studio in the former pasta factory "Cerere" in Via degli Ausoni in San Lorenzo, Rome, where the artists Gianni Dessì, Guiseppe Gallo and Nunzio also worked. They subsequently founded the group "Nuova Scuola Romana" (New Roman School). The general return to the medium of "painting" and the aim of going beyond the minimalism and conceptual art that was widespread in the 1980s united the artists in Rome, who worked in different ways.

In Cannella’s work , the spatial references still present in the 1980s work , and later motifs appear to be in a sort of limbo. Similarly, the human figure gradually vanishes and is suggested only by familiar objects—such as tables, chairs, and clothes—that lack any real-world context. Cannella’s work individual groups of works that form variations on a theme. In his works, details take on a life of their own, eventually coming to dominate the image. Equally characteristic are his handling of the material, his willingness to experiment, and the creation of depth through layering in his paintings and on paper. Alongside clothes, fans, lizards, dried flowers, and tiles, vases are among the subjects that have enlivened Pizzi Cannella’s works for decades. In addition to a series of solo and group exhibitions in Rome, Florence, Siena, Paris, Vienna, New York, Berlin, and Basel, among other cities, Cannella has also participated in the Sydney Biennale (1986), the Rome Quadriennale (1986, 1996), and the Venice Biennale (1988, 1993).

Cannella's work represented in museums and public collections worldwide, including the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, and the New House Center in New York. Cannella lives and works in Rome.