Lorenzo Balbi has been the director of Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna(MAMbo) since 2017. In addition, Lorenzo oversees the Villa of the Roses, Morandi Museum and house, and the Museum for the Memory of Ustica and Residence for artists.

After studying Conservation of Cultural Heritage at Ca' Foscari University in Venice, he specialized in Contemporary Art at the University of Turin. His texts and articles have been published in various magazines including: Il Giornale dell'Arte, Inside Art, Artribune, Mousse, La Stampa, Exibart, ATP Diary, Il Giornale dell'Architettura, and Juliet.

From 2006 to 2017 at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, he taught Curatorial Methodology at Campo, a course for curators, and was responsible for the organization and development of exhibition projects in the institution's spaces in Turin and Guarene d'Alba, as well as exhibitions of the Sandretto Re Re Rebaudengo Collection abroad. He followed as assistant curator the Residency Project for Young Foreign Curators in 2009 (coordinator Ilaria Bonacossa), in 2011 and 2012 (coordinator Stefano Collicelli Cagol), until becoming the curator in charge for three editions from 2015 to 2017. Since 2018 he has been the artistic director of ART CITY Bologna, a series of exhibition events in the city promoted on the occasion of Arte Fiera. 

Balbi is a lecturer in Sistemi dell'Arte at the DAMS of the University of Bologna and the

Accademia delle Belle Arti di Bologna, IED and other institutions of higher learning. He is a member of the board of directors of AMACI - Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani - of which, since May 2022, he has assumed the position of president - of the Scientific Committee of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, of the Board of Directors of the Fondazione Lucio Saffaro and is president of the Public Art Commission of the Municipality of Bologna.