Mirco Marchelli was born in Novi Ligure in 1963 and lives and works in Ovada, in the province of Alessandria.
A multifaceted artist, Marchelli began working in the visual arts in the mid-nineties, maintaining continuity with his musical works.
The keys to interpretation of his work are memory and the fascination of everyday objects such as flagpoles, stools, little items of furniture, pieces of wood and fabric, books, accounting ledgers, registers, boxes and photographs, covering them all with a layer of wax that transfigures them and makes them timeless. Marchelli restores life and meaning to these materials, exploiting their resonances and the stories they express to tell something new; he does not simply evoke memories, but arouses vague suggestions inspiring a yearning for the past.
The fact that the artist is also a composer (he played trumpet in Paolo Conte’s band for many years), or rather, the composer is also an artist, is no matter of chance or accident of circumstance, but the key to the very unusual world he has constructed over all these years.
To borrow from the language of music criticism, we might say that the artist proceeds in terms of plastic modulating progressions, with ornamentation. He sees no break between music and painting: he chooses “ingredients” of highly diverse materials, appearance and origin, blending and working them all with very free methods and imaginative creativity, even while applying a rigorous method, like a composer working in sonata form. Thus he brings new meaning and flavour to these “old things” he has recycled, exploiting their “resonances”, the stories they have to tell. Since 2017 Marchelli has been experimenting with ceramic, a new material in his artistic career, featured in a new cycle of works.
2024
An Echo of Flowers, Hilde Vandaele Gallery, Watou, Belgium
2023
Un’eco di fiori, Marcorossi artecontemporanea | Progetto Roma, Rome, Italy
Buoni offici, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
Lieti Motivi, Museo Archeologico, Acqui Terme, Italy
Voci in capitolo, Fondazione Biscozzi Rimbaud, Lecce, Italy
Motivi di gioia, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2022
Tante belle cose, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Pietrasanta, Turin and Verona, Italy
Ariette semplici, Galerie Tourette, Paris, France
2021
Riguardo ad un frastuono rimbombante, Museo dei Lumi, Sinagoga, Casale Monferrato, Italy
Opera giocosa, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2020
Nuove consonanze, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2018
A capo. Ceramiche Albisola, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Pietrasanta and Verona, Italy
2017
Giocattoli, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2016
A due voci, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
A due voci, La Cappuccina, Borgomanero, Italy
Canzoni in levare, Museo Ettore Guatelli, Ozzano Taro, Collecchio, Italy
2015
Mirco Marchelli, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain
2014
A due voci, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
A due voci, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Verona, Italy
Via Crucis, Fondazione Lercaro, Bologna, Italy
2013Scena muta per nuvole basse, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
L’ombelico del mondo, Marina di Scarlino, Italy
Ballabili miniati, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2012
InCauti Suoni, Spazio Perlartecontemporanea, Lugano, Switzerland
Mezza bellezza, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milano e Pietrasanta, Italy
Cosa gradita, Morotti arte contemporanea, Daverio, Varese, Italy
2011
Belle statuine, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
Stato, Participio Passato, Accademia Filarmonica, Casale Monferrato, Italy
Meno Mare, Galleria Ghetta, Ortisei, Italy
In che stato, Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy
Al mare farà brutto, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Borgomanero, Italy
2010
Parole povere, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Monza, Italy
Piano pianissimo, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Verona, Italy
2009
Aristocratica, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Aristocratica, GlobArt Gallery, Acqui Terme, Italy
Otium, Rosso 20sette artecontemporanea, Rome, Italy
2008
Ma c’è un Ma, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Pietrasanta, Italy
Amata o tic tac, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
Mirco Marchelli, Alzueta Gallery, Palau de Casavells, Girona, Spain
2007
Ma c’è un Ma, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Turin, Italy
Trombe clarini e genis, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
Bella cera, Galleria Traghetto, Rome, Italy
2006
Via Crucis, Ex Chiesa della Beata Vergine delle Grazie, Villafranca Piemonte, Italy
2005
Mirco Marchelli, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Cime, segni e specchi d’acqua, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2004
Quindici diciotto, Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy
2003
Acqua calda acqua fredda, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
2002
Via Crucis, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
2001
C’era una volta il re, Galerie Bäumler, Regensburg, Germany
2000
Orizzontale quasi verticale, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
1999
Asino chi legge, Todi Arte Festival, Todi, Italy
Cristoforo prima di partire, Galleria Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Italy
1998
Mirco Marchelli, Galerie Sfeir Semler, Hamburg, Germany
Pause popolari, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
1997
La casa di Mirco, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
1996
Mirco Marchelli, Galleria Cesarea, Genoa, Italy
1995
Galleria Triangolo Nero, Alessandria, Italy
1994
Galleria Corte Zerbo, Gavi, Italy
2023
1950-2000. Espressioni d’Arte nel Basso Piemonte, Castello di Monastero Bormida, Monastero Bormida, Italy
2022
Learn But The Letters Forme(d) By Heart, Then Soon You’ll Gain This Noble Art, Adams and Ollman Gallery, Portland, Oregon, USA
Summer 2022, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
Álbum de Família, Alzueta Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2021
The Sun Also Rises, Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2018
FutuRuins, in collaboration with The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Italy
2017
Eterne Stagioni, Palazzo Monferrato, Alessandria, Italy
2016
La Leggerezza della Scultura, XI Edition, Parco dell’Arte, Cerrina Monferrato, Italy
Miserere, Arca – ex chiesa di San Marco; Confraternita di San Vittore; Studiodieci, Vercelli, Italy
Colmare il vuoto. Marco La Rosa in dialogo con le opere della Collezione Paolo VI, Centro Studi Paolo VI, Concesio, Brescia, Italy
2015
Mappemondi, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Verona, Italy
2014
Infinito Presente. Elogio della relazione, Museo Diocesano, Trento, Italy
Novanta artisti per una bandiera, Palazzo Arsenale, Turin, Italy
L’Orlando furioso: incantamenti, passioni e follie. L’arte contemporanea legge l’Ariosto, Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2013
Borderline. Tra spirito e materia, Centro Culturale Santa Maria della Pietà, Cremona, Italy
Incontri…Contemporary Italian Art, The Schaufler Foundation, Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Germany
Rinascere, Museo del territorio, Biella, Italy
Novanta artisti per una bandiera, Sala del Vittoriano, Rome; Accademia Militare, Modena; Chiostri di San Domenico, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2012
Costellazione, Galleria Cardelli & Fontana, Sarzana, Italy
2011
L’arte non è cosa nostra, 54th Venice Biennale, The Italian Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Alla luce della Croce. Arte antica e contemporanea a confronto, Fondazione Lercaro, Bologna, Italy
A due a due, Museo dei Campionissimi, Novi Ligure, Italy
AAM, Spazio Eventiquattro – Gruppo 24 Ore, Milan, Italy
2010
Clicking on the Future, Fondazione Achille Marazza, Borgomanero, Italy
Impronte, Galleria Bonioni Arte, Reggio Emilia, Italy
La Leggerezza della Scultura, Parco dell’Arte, Cerrina Monferrato, Italy
Nel segno della croce, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
Vertigini, Studio Vigato, Alessandria, Italy
Contemporaneamente, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Pietrasanta, Italy
2009
Vegetando, Convento di Santa Caterina, Finalborgo, Italy
L’oro nero, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
Favole d’artisti di ieri e di oggi, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
Ad Librandum, Various venues, Vicenza, Italy
8 artisti 4 mura, Studio di Architettura Gatti, Alessandria, Italy
Imago, Eventinove artecontemporanea, Borgomanero, Italy
2008
Blu, Marcorossi artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy
Collezione 20×20, GlobArt gallery, Acqui Terme, Italy
Sconfinamenti, Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
2006
Sentire con gli occhi, Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy
2005
Je ne regrette rien, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
Galleria Art Forum, Ute Barth, Zurich, Switzerland
Galleria Traghetto, Venice, Italy
2004
Biennale d’Arte Sacra, Museo Stauros, Isola del Gran Sasso d’Italia, Teramo, Italy
2002
Il respiro nascosto delle cose, Studio La Città, Verona, Italy
2001
Storie storte e vite parallele, Galleria di Castelbianco, Savona, Italy
2000
Carte blanche à Helene de Franchis, Galerie Lucien Durand Le Gaillard, Paris, France
1999
Morbida quiete e la notte, Studio la Città, Verona, Italy
1997
10 stanze per 10 artisti, Arte Fiera, Bologna, Italy
Rome, 3 October - 16 January 2023
Milan, 22 september - 23 december 2022
Turin, 22 September - 23 December 2022
