Marco Tirelli was born in 1956 in Rome, where still he lives and works. He attended the Academy of Fine Art (Rome) graduating in scenography. Since his first solo exhibition in 1978 in Milan, he has participated in a number of exhibitions not only domestically but also internationally.
The followings are the principal exhibitions:

La Biennale di Venezia, Italy / Biennale di Sidney, Australia / Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil / Museu de Arte Moderna Sao Paulo, Brazil / Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Helsinki, Finland / Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts, Vietnam / Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel and many others

Marco Tirelli is known as a tempera painter, and he has been practicing the technique mainly on wood panel and canvas over the past decades. The subject matters have basically something to do with geometric forms, which are painted as if suspended in the air leaving a wide margin. Each of them is surrounded by fair shadow and makes us feel the heft of solid form itself with more depth and stateliness. On the other hand, the glaze of colored surface and texture of support medium is completely cleared away holding the stillness deep down.

Many scenes from the stories of Christ were visualized as mural paintings in Italy. He seems to resume revitalizing the stories by retaining the favor of light and shadow, making the details presented in background simplified and purified as much as possible. It could be said tempera painting is the unequaled device for him to fulfill it all in all. His works pull form our memories far back, and recall the experiences beyond time and space.