Antonio Sanfilippo was born in Partanna in 1923. After completing his studies in Florence, he moved to Rome in 1946. The following year, together with Accardi, Attardi, Consagra, Dorazio, Guerrini, Perilli, Turcato, and Maugeri, he founded the artistic group "Forma." He made his debut at the Venice Biennale in 1948, appearing again in several subsequent editions: in 1954, 1964, and 1966, the year in which he was given a solo exhibition.
Until 1963, he favored black and white, but later introduced color in a sophisticated manner, infusing his work with new energy and dynamism. In 1958, Michel Tapié curated a solo exhibition of his work at the Galleria d'Arte Selecta in Rome and, two years later, included Sanfilippo in the volume "Morphologie autre." That same year, he participated in the exhibition "New Tendencies in Italian Art," curated by Lionello Venturi, at the Rome-New York Art Foundation.
In the following years, his international activity expanded further, with illustrious exhibitions such as the Kamakura Museum of Modern Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 1961. He died in January 1980.