- Licata was born in Turin in 1929. In 1947, Giuseppe Mazziarol saw some of his paintings, convinced Licata to enroll in a liceo artistico and in Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. After these studies, Licata won a scholarship from the French government. He drew significant inspiration from the Guggenheim Collection and from contact with the artists of the Fronte Nuovo delle Arto (Birolli, Guttuso, Pizzinato, Turcato, Santomaso, Vedova, Viani) who were at the center of the debate and renewal that characterized the Italian art scene after the Second World War. Licata brought together a group of young artists who tended towards abstract art, while his own work defined itself more and more as "graphic and pictorial writing," inspired by music.

- Beginning in 1957, Licata has divided his time between Venice and Paris, where, since the 1950's, he has travelled in the same circles as artists like Stanley Hayter, Johnny Friedilander and Henri Goetz, with all of who he has collaborated in various forms of experimtental etching. He lives in Paris at the Academie des Beaux Artsi.

-It would be impossible to list all the exhibitions in Italy and around the world where his work had been shown. They include exhibtions in Venice and Florence; Turin; the Hrtek Gallery in Helsinki; the Bellechasse Galerie in Paris; St. Martin's in London; the Amam Gallery in San Paolo, the Gallerie Suzy Langlois in Paris; the Gallerie Fabein Boulakia, also in Paris; the Oliver Dowling Gallery in Dublin; the S.D.S. Hallen Gallery in Malmo, Sweden; and the Idée Gallery in Taipei.