Artist

MARCO GRASSI was born in milan in 1966. he studied at the "liceo artistico b. luini in cantu' and graduated in architecture in milan. actually, he lives and works in mariano comense.

For the past ten years Marco Grassi has been working with a sense of responsibility in his works, always being faithful to the figurative style of his works, never has he allowed this to become an object of fashion or only satisfying a mo- mentary taste. His language and his subjects have always remained constant and declaringly connected to his sense of vision and to the taste of his complex sensi- tivity, whenever such choices – the fashionable female figure, certain colour combi- nations, use of lacquering, the repletion with minimum variations of the subjectshave labelled him, unjustly so, a Pop ar tist. Where Pop today stand for that glamour – all sequins and shine, so fashionable in the world of fashion and often limbo for a serious research on a particular type of figuration. Pop, which one hopes, will soon decline and exhaust its pover ty of contents in the space of a brief season.

It is true that the privileged subjects of Grassi are delicate and attractive, but also energetic and resolute, female figures shown in fashionable, bright colours, but this should not be sufficient to frame the artist in a genre which is his only in the form but certainly not in the contents of his art. 

There are two pairs to be evaluated with care with which fulfils the elements of sense of his outlook: figure subject, colour technique.

Grassi insists on the identity of the female figure which be- come subject in elaborating the different and contingent variations of his message, because something not to be overlooked, his paintings are framed in series – even though not in accordance to the canonical sense of this term – which feel the spe- cificness of the moment in which they are painted.They speak quietly, of his mood and feelings, his time, his story,of his out look of the world.

This is why these characters are masked in some way, actors and figures, caught in the intense foreground, who tell of events starting from those crypted by their executor, mark, with their expressions moments which can be traced back also to the situations experienced by each spectator, that meeting and playing the game of their glances in which they are reflected.

Regarding the technique chosen a relevant novelty can be noticed.

Marco Grassi renounces an element which up until now was a decisive element and part of the architecture of every part of his work. In his most recent works we witness a complete absence of design: the sure and confident stroke with which he traced outer anatomic lines, showing stability in the whole of the figure, compared to a choice of bold colours which transforms and breaks down under the effect of spatula and drippings, is less obvious. The figure loses the factor of certainty and sureness, a base which permitted it to integrate itself completely in the complex weave of colour, now depicted in a more decisive background and efficiently connected to the expression of faces and the intensity of their silence and complice with those who observe.

HIS PRINCIPAL SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2010 “BeMyPrincess”, leo galleries, Monza -  

         “S.T.”, Scottsdale, Arizona

2009 “More Pink”, Art Gallery, 

          Cortina d’Ampezzo “More Pink”

          East End Studios, Milano “Glamourgrama”

          T35, Milano “Glamourgrama”, MA09, Atlanta USA

          “Glamourgrama”, WFCUSA, Phoenix USA

2008 “Girls Save the Pink”, Galleria Nuovospazio, 

          Piacenza “Girls Save the Pink”, curated by Stefano Castelli,Villa Sartirana, Giussano - 

          Milano;          

          “Pink 4 1 Night”, Stefano Civati Art Consultant, Milano

2007 “PinkVelvet”, curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Novato Arte Contemporanea, Fano                 

          “Kissing the pink”, curated by Matteo Galbiati, Spazio Contemporaneamente, Milano

          “La vie en rose”, Galleria Bortone, Parigi

2006 “I LOVE Roma”, Galleria Laura Rossi International, Roma “SMALL”, curated by Marta           

          Casati, Galleria Magrorocca, Milano

2005 “LOVE me tender”, a cura di Paola Noè, Ex chiesa di S. Pietro in Atrio, Como

2003 “Self-service”, curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Galleria Magrorocca, Milano

2002 “New paintings”, AMSTE, Lissone

2001 “Globalislamizzazione”, Studio Gariboldi, Milano

2000 “Metropolitani 2000”, a cura di Luca Beatrice, Studio Gariboldi, Milano

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS:

2012 International Art Expo New York, march 22-25, 2012 - Pier 92 on the Hudson River, NYC Usa

2011 "54. Biennale di Venezia" - Thriteen : brother and sister, Venezia Padiglione Italia

2010 “Arte per Arte”, Lucca Center of Contemporary Art, Lucca

2009 “Love Nest”, Galleria Wannabee, Milano “Undercover”, Galleria Wannabee, Milano

2008 “Contemporary”, Superstudio, Milano - “Convivio” - Milano

2007 “Gimme Five” curated by Ivan Quaroni, Galleria Novato, Fano 

         “Film rouge” curated by Chiara Argentieri, Galleria Grafique, Bologna 

         “Figurandia”, Galleria La Roggia, Brescia 

         “La nuova figurazione italiana”, curated by Chiara Canali, Fabbrica Borroni, Bollate 

         “Curve Pericolose”, a cura Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Bastioni Porta Venezia, Milano 

          Bonelli Lab, Canneto sull’Oglio, Mantova 

         “Danze macabre”, Galleria Triangolo, Bergamo

2006 “Allarmi2”, Como 

         “Bang Bang my baby shot me down”, curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Galleria Novato, 

          Fano 

         “L’Arte nell’uovo di Pasqua”,Complesso monumentale del Vittoriano, Roma 

         “Profumo di donna”, curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Galleria del Tasso, Bergamo

2005 “Seven...every thing goes to hell”, curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Palazzo Pretorio,  

         Certaldo

2004 “Quattro artisti per un premio”, Roberta Lietti Arte Contemporanea, Como 

         “Le dinamiche del volto”, Palazzo Ducale, Pavullo nel Frignano  

         “Girotondoilmondolaterraperterra”, Galleria Magrorocca, Milano

2003 “Cluedo”,curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Image Furini Arte Contemporanea,Arezzo 

         “Tattoo”, Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Mantova

         “Specchio”, a cura di Emma Gravagnuolo, Galleria Guidi&Shoen, Genova 

         “Contemporanea Giovani”, Ex Ticosa, Como