Born in Naples in 1945, he lives and works in Milan. After studying art and a few years of teaching at the Art School of Benevento, in 1971 he moved to Milan where he is a teacher of painting at Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. His first orientation turned to a photographic art, only to discover that he was a skilled manipulator of clay and bronze. In 1980 the review  “Dieci anni dopo: i nuovi nuovi” (literally “Ten years later: the new new ones”) curated by Renato Barilli sanctions the birth of the Nuovi nuovi (literally "new new ones") group, whose exhibitions Giuseppe Maraniello was also participating in a stable manner. The language of his works is the result of an hybridization intervention between pictorial sign and sculptural elaboration, an intervention in which the artist gives ample space to his imagination of an esoteric and imaginative universe, inhabited by archaic and mythical subjects such as archers, devils, equilibrists. In the sculptures prevail sensations of lightness and a sort of acrobatic game between precarious balances, memories and dreamlike visions.

In addition to the numerous monumental sculptures permanently exhibited in Italian and international public spaces, there are personal exhibitions in institutions: Giardino di Boboli, Florence (2009), Torre Guevara, Ischia (2004), Rocca Sforzesca, Imola (2002), Fortezza Firmafede, Sarzana (2001), Galleria Civica, Trento and Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (1993).

Among the collective exhibitions in institutions are: Giardini della Reggia di Venaria Reale (2016-2017), Musée D'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Saint-Ètienne and MADRE Museum, Naples (2015), Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation, Milan (2005), MART, Rovereto (2004), Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna (1997, 1980), Museum of Modern Art, Bogotà (1992), Crystal Palace, Madrid (1990), Loggetta Lombardesca, Ravenna (1980), Galleria Civica dʼArte Moderna, Modena (1979). In 1990 he participated with a solo to the XLIV Biennale d'Arte in Venice.