Lady Wang Painting

MARCO SALVATORE MALLAMACIBiographical Notesby Sabrina FalzoneBorn in Magna Graecia in 1948, the internationally recognised artist Marco Salvatore Mallamaci is of aristocratic Greek lineage that can be traced, precisely, back to the very foundation of Magna Graecia. An artist, collector and official of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1979, Marco is a multifaceted character who surprises everyone he meets. He mostly lives abroad and is currently living in Asia. He has travelled widely through Asia, Africa, America and Europe. These journeys have left indelible traces on his path in life, significantly enriching the cultural, ethnic, political and professional experiences which now represent the foundation of his inner wealth, the well from which he draws his inexhaustible creativity. It is not by chance that the self-taught artist’s corpus of pictorial works has a distinctly cosmopolitan feel: he can, to all intents and purposes, be defined a "citizen of the World." In 1968 he emigrated to Canada, where he obtained his degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Windsor. Marco began painting in the early 1980s, having moved from Rome to Namur in Belgium. Under the influence of Eugenio Barra, a painter and lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, whom he had met in the capital in 1979 and from whom he bought many works, Marco began gathering information on artistic techniques, eventually discovering oil painting as the perfect medium through which to express himself. The incipit of his art can be seen in the painting “Latin America: The General U$ed”, a work described as "a masterpiece" by the Chinese painter and critic Zhang Runshi (“Chinese Art” magazine no. 41, 15 October 2005). From 1980 to 1999 Marco moves from Belgium to other countries such as Ethipia, Great Britain and Colombia. 1999 is a decisive year: he establishes himself in Beijing (China) where after a short time he becomes a well-known artist. By 2003, Marco had begun to showcase his paintings to tens of thousands of art lovers and collectors at major international exhibitions in Beijing and Canton. Making his debut in the October of that same year, he participated in the Sixth Beijing International Art Exhibition. His appearance was greeted with public and critical acclaim. To quote but one review by the Chinese poet and painter Wang Xunsheng: "Marco is an outstanding contemporary painter: Italian art has found its heir.