“I grew up here, but I never felt entirely part of it”: Marco…

Marco Tirelli grew up at the Swiss Institute in Rome, surrounded by visiting scholars and artists. His father was the manager and he family lived there (at the Institutes’s 19th Century Villa Maraini) in an apartment. His talent as a draftman took little time to show and he was already assigned a studio at the Villa Maraini at the age of 15.

Living at the Villa Maraini was a strong influence on his personal and artistic development : “So I’m a rather strange Roman,” he said. “I grew up here, but I never felt entirely part of it. And this has had a big effect on my work because I’ve always sensed a tension between places, real places, and what lies unseen beyond.”

Tirelli studied set design with Totj Scialoja at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and he is an admirer of theatrical designer Adolphe Appia, whose work is echoed by Tirelli’s geometric and dramatic painting.

The metaphysical visions of the artist are expressed in a wide variety of styles and media: from paintings of geometric objects with dramatic lighting and contrasts, to drawings and sketches, to tiny sculptures of scenes. A collection of his work has been presented at the 2013 Art Biennale of Venice.

Barbara Rose wrote in her column in the Wall Street Journal: “An accomplished painter, sculptor and draftsman, Mr. Tirelli treats the theme of memory in a precise and evocative manner. Drawings of the images he uses in his metaphysical abstract paintings alternate with three-dimensional maquettes of imaginary buildings that suggest a metaphysical time and place.”