He modeled figures for the new Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan before winning a scholarship to New York’s Art Students League. By eighteen, Iannelli had opened his own studio on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and soon had moved west to Cincinnati and a job in a lithography company. Within the same year, he again headed west in search of the American Indians he’d dreamed of since his boyhood in Italy, eventually settling in Los Angeles.

Soon Frank Lloyd Wright was aware of his remarkable talent and invited him to Chicago for a collaboration that was to transform Twentieth Century architecture.

Wright passed off all the sculpture as his own in the ensuing publicity, crushing Iannelli and depriving him of any credit in what could have been his triumphant Chicago debut. When Wright later asked him to create the sculpture for his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Iannelli refused to ever again work for America’s greatest architect.

This showcased a large collection of his sculptures, fountains, designs for stained glass windows, and a stunning drawing of his proposed tomb for Louis Sullivan, the recently deceased godfather of the Chicago School. His collaboration with Barry Byrne led to important commissions designing sculptures and stained glass windows for churches throughout the Midwest. His modernist interpretations of Biblical subjects updated religious symbolism and transformed them into a contemporary language.

His higher profile also made the Iannelli name into its own brand, and Sunbeam, Eversharp, Oster, and other manufacturers used it in their advertising to promote their advanced styling.

Other exhibit designs for the Enchanted Island amusement area, Elgin Watches, and Wahl Eversharp made Iannelli’s work for the World’s Fair a watershed event for his firm. The fair gave Iannelli his highest profile commissions and largest audience and his name was now known throughout the country. Iannelli Studios soon became the most successful commercial art firm in Chicago.

As an architect, sculptor, industrial designer, and teacher, Iannelli’s influence on graphic and applied art gave a fresh, modernist look to old forms and provided employment to several generations of commercial artists.

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Rendering for unbuilt Goodyear Pavilion, 1933

Study for Orpheum poster, February 1915

Study for Orpheum poster, January 1915

Photograph of Pickwick Auditorium, circa 1929

Alternative rendering of 1933 Chicago World’s Fair “Radio Entrance,” circa 1931

Rendering of 1939 New York World’s Fair “United Nations Plaza Center,” circa 1938

Rendering for unexecuted Sunbeam toaster design, 1947

Pine carving of female nude, 1931

Design for unexecuted mural, circa 1915