Born in Bologna, where he held his first solo exhibition in 1965 at the Bentivoglio Study Room, Calzolari became one of the leading figures of the Arte Povera movement. He distinguished himself through the literary and poetic quality of his work, which verged on performance art, as seen in Canto Sospeso (1973). Abandoning traditional painting techniques, in 1967 he presented the performance The Filter and Welcome to the Angel, referencing Pino Pascali’s eponymous artwork.

Calzolari’s work frequently incorporates materials such as ice, margarine, melted lead, neon lettering and metallic and organic materials. He has a particular interest in the concept of transformation and the addition of physical objects to create a temporal sound experience. In the 1980s, he returned to traditional paintings featuring abstractions of a metaphysical and existential nature, which had previously appeared alongside typographic elements.

He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1978, 1980, and 1990 and in Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992. In 1994, a retrospective was held at the National Gallery of Jeu de Paume in Paris and at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin.