An internationally recognized artist, Marco Salvatore Mallamaci, born in Magna Graecia in 1948, after completing middle school at the seminary, emigrated to Krefeld, Germany at the age of 16, and then to Windsor, Canada, in 1967, where he found work in construction and the restaurant industry.

Having learned English in an evening class for immigrants, he passed the TOEFL and enrolled at the University of Windsor in foreign languages and literature, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1972.

After returning to Italy and passing a competitive exam, he was hired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979. He then moved to Rome, where, thanks to an ad in Porta Portese, he found a room and learned that the landlord was Professor Eugenio Barra, a retired professor from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

Watching him paint, Marco’s artistic streak was reawakened (the first and only oil painting of which he has a photo was done in Canada), and over time, he became first a collector (purchasing numerous works of art from Professor Barra) and then a citizen of the world and a traveling artist.

Marco began painting in the early 1980s, when he moved to the Italian Consulate in Namur (Belgium). It was there that Marco began researching oil painting techniques, smearing numerous canvases that ended up in the dustbin.

To paint, Marco doesn’t use a palette: he draws colours directly from the tube (from the beginning, he mainly buys very fine Windsor & Newton colours) and spreads them on the canvas with a brush, palette knife or cotton cloth. It was in Namur that he painted “Latin America: The General U$ed”, a work that the Chinese painter and critic Zhang Runshi called “a masterpiece” (Chinese Art Magazine, issue no. 41, October 15, 2005).

 In 1985 Marco moved to the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). This period saw the creation of the works “Minette”, “Apocalypse”, “Tempus fugit”, “Metamorphosis of Beauty” and “Celebratory Erection”.

The Italian Cultural Institute offered him an exhibition of his works there, but Marco, believing it to be favouritism because he was an embassy employee, declined the invitation.

On September 20, 1988, Marco began working at the Italian Embassy in London where he painted, among other works, “Beheaded on the Road to Damascus”.

Having returned to the Farnesina in 1993, he went to Poggi company on Via del Gesù to purchase art supplies and met the legendary Signor Memmo who, after several meetings, recommended he try the well-known Mussini oil paints.

In 1996 Marco moved to the Italian Embassy in Bogota (Colombia) and on 27 August 1999 he began work at the Italian Embassy in Beijing.

It was in China that Marco was invited to participate with his paintings in numerous important international exhibitions. Form October 1^st to 5^th, 2003 (it had originally been scheduled for May 1^st to 5^th, 2003), he took part in the 6^th Beijing International Art Exhibition, receiving widespread public and critical acclaim, including a manuscript written by the Chinese poet and painter Wang Xunsheng, which reads, among other things: “Marco is an outstanding contemporary painter: Italian art has found its heir”.

On the occasion of this international exhibition, Marco edited and published “Thoughts… in colours”, a small 24-page catalogue in Chinese and English, printed in Beijing in 3,000 copies by EZS Enterprise Image Strategy & Design Center.

On October 6, 2003, the renowned South American writer, Ariel Dorfman, a professor at Duke University, wrote to Marco: “Dear friend, I was moved and impressed by your paintings and congratulate you on your participation in the current exhibition in Beijing… I wonder if your works have ever been used to illustrate book covers. There are many, in fact, that could be used for my (fiction) works”. On October 12 he added: “Once again, congratulations on your works – which are meditative, provocative, and often generate a kind of enigmatic wonder…”.

From December 16 to 20, 2003, Marco participated in the 8^th Canton International Art Exhibition. The prestigious monthly magazine “China Today”, created by the wife of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Peoples’ Republic of China, was one of the first to cover Marco’s success: Dr. Hu Chunhua, director of the French-language edition “La Chine au présent”, went to Marco’s home, with the Canadian journalist Louise Cadieux, to interview him, dedicating three full pages to him in issue no. 4 of April 2004.

From September 15 to 21, 2004, Marco took part in the 11^th China Art Exhibition, held in Beijing at the Millennium Monument Museum.

His successes didn’t end there. At the 7^th Beijing International Art Exhibition (October 1-5, 2004), Marco was awarded the Gold Prize, attracting the attention of major national television networks, including CCTV and China International Investment TV Network. The media hype continued in the newspapers “The Canton News”, “The Canton Journal” and in the magazines “Beijing Famous People”, “Beijing Tatler” and “Collections of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy”.

Thanks to the aforementioned unanimous expressions of esteem, despite having no sponsors to support his candidacy, Marco was invited to participate in the prestigious 2^nd Beijing International Art Biennale (September 20 – October 20, 2005), where he achieved undeniable personal success.

Among the critics who took interest in his work were Li Xianting, Zhao Shulin, Yang Wei and journalists such as Dr. Wang Zhong and Dr. Xu Yonglin, editors of the two most prestigious Chinese art magazines “Arte” and “Chinese Art” respectively: the latter dedicated a full six pages to Marco.

The Honorable Bai Yuzhang (art critic, painter and gallery owner) is among those who most love Marco’s works, along with the Honorable Qin Bailan (an internationally renowned painter).

2005 was also the year Marco returned to his homeland and in Rome he discovered that the success achieved in China had resonated in Europe as well: he received numerous invitations to exhibit his works and garnered positive reviews from renowned Italian and international critics and art historians, including Dr. Sabrina Falzone who called Marco “the precursor of a Symbolist Neo-Existentialism in the 21^st century”.

During his stay in Rome, Marco visited Via Margutta several times, where he meets and befriends the manager of a general store, whom he gives a copy of his catalogue, “Thoughts… in colour”. After leafing through the catalogue, the manager advises Marco not to waste money on gallery exhibitions where the usual small crowd shows up for a free drink. He advises Marco to buy a page in a well-known contemporary art magazine. However, having taken a liking to Marco, he advised him to visit, on behalf of Roberta, the nearby Galleria La Nuvola whose owner, however, pointed out that his gallery specializes in artists from the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Meanwhile, some of Marco’s works were featured on national and international art websites such as London’s Saatchi and France’s ArtMajeur.

From 28 December 2006 to 25 October 2009 Marco served at the Italian Embassy in Managua (Nicaragua) where, following a very brief absence of the Ambassador, he was officially appointed as Chargé d’Affaires a.i.

In November 2007 Marco participated in the International Art Exhibition “Impressions of the East” held in the splendid setting of the Palazzo Spinola di San Luca (known as Palazzo Ratto-Picasso) in Genoa.

From December 1^st to 9^th, 2007, at the invitation of the Scientific Committee, Marco participated in the 6^th International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Florence, where he presented his works “Penelope’s Canvas… for Ulysses”, “Add your signature!” and “Astolfo’s Ampoule”. Invited to all subsequent editions, even today Marco declines invitations.

In 2008, as Guest of Honor, he participated in the 4^th International Biennial of Ferrara.

From June 12^th to July 4^th, 2009, the Museum of the Americas in Miami (USA) presented a solo exhibition of the artist’s work, which was subsequently repeated (from August 5^th to 29^th) by the Latino Art Museum in Pomona, California.

From December 10^th to 14^th, 2009, Marco participated in the 14^th International Art Exhibition in Canton (China).

In August 2014 Marco was awarded the “John Paul II Prize” for his oil painting “Maria”.

From January 11 to 25, 2015, at the invitation of the President of the Scientific Committee, Prof. Paolo Levi, Marco participated in the 2^nd International Art Biennial of Palermo, inaugurated by Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi.

From May 19 to 30, 2015, Marco participated in the exhibition “Piazza del Popolo – from Caravaggio to the present day” in Rome, held in the evocative Bramante Rooms of the prestigious monumental complex located in Piazza del Popolo. The reason for this invitation, expressed by Prof. Paolo Levi, President of the Scientific Committee, is as follows: “For his great communicative ability, the result of careful technical and expressive research. His participation in the Roman event is dictated by the great esteem and attention paid to his work and his outstanding creativity”. His painting “Pope Francis with President Xi Jinping” is published in the magazine Effetto Arte, edited by Prof. Paolo Levi.

From June 9 to 12, 2016, he participated in the Verona Triennale of Contemporary Art, an event curated by Prof. Paolo Levi and Dr. Sandro Serradifalco, inaugurated by Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi, and whose Artistic Committee was chaired by Prof. Luca Beatrice.

From March 25 to April 22, 2017, Marco participated in the 3^rd edition of the Rome Triennale of Visual Arts, at the Vittoriano Complex, organized by Dr. Daniele Radini Tedeschi and Dr. Stefania Pieralice, curated by Dr. Giovanni Dunil and inaugurated by Prof. Achille Bonito Oliva, Prof. Vittorio Sgarbi and Prof. Claudio Strinati.

During this period, meanwhile, Prof. Sgarbi published Marco’s work “British Royal Fashion Icons” in Italiani – Selezione d’Arte Contemporanea – Dalla figurazione al Concetto Spaziale (page 42 with commentary on page 354) and “The Warrior Goddess” in Maestri – Selezione d’Arte Contemporanea (page 464 with commentary on page 574).

Shortly thereafter, he was selected to participate in the 57^th Venice Biennale, Guatemala National Pavilion. However, when summoned to Venice to attend the preview conference for the presentation of the aforementioned pavilion, Marco, considering this meeting incomprehensible, politely thanked and declined the invitation (perhaps it should be clarified that Marco does not enjoy showing off, nor, at his age and after spending a lifetime traveling the world, taking trips he deems unnecessary).

In November 2017 Marco was invited and accepted into the “Artists in the Sgarbi Collection” project.

After accidentally reading on the ArtMajeur website a message of appreciation sent to him on October 17, 2014, by Mrs. Ruthie Tucker, owner of the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York, on June 15, 2022 Marco apologized for not having responded (as he was unaware that the website could contain information other than his works) and the following day he received further appreciation along with a contract to exhibit his works in her gallery.

Thanking her for her kind words about his work, Marco informs her that his works are not currently for sale.

In February 2019, 3 of Marco’s works were published in Artisti ’19, International Yearbook of Contemporary Art, ART NOW, Mondadori Store, pages 344, 663 and 985.

Invited by Start Group, Corporate Patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to publish one of his works, in March 2023 Marco submitted photographs of the following works: Maria, The Yalta Circus_ference, Minette, Apocalypse and Italia desnuda. The Scientific Committee, after examining the website marcoartstudio.com, published "Penelope's canvas... for Ulysses" (Atlas of Contemporary Art 2024, Giunti Editore, pages 713-715).

In November 2025 Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori published a work by Marco in its Catalogue of Modern Art no. 61, pages 328 and 353.

Marco’s success demonstrates that art is still a valid tool for expressing one’s political, ethical and social ideals without constraints.

http://marcoartstudio.com//

1984 Belgium	1989 Addis Ababa - Ethiopia
1990 London Bridge	2001 The Mouth of the Truth - Rome
2001 The Fountain of Trevi - Rome	2000 Wangfujing - Beijing
2003 Guilin-Guangxi	2004 Xishuangban'na - Yun'nan
2004 Xishuangban'na - Yun'nan