Marco Grassi

Artist Bio

Marco Grassi (Grama) is an Italian-born painter, born in 1966, now living and working in Lugano, Switzerland. Marco creates remarkable portraits characterized by their realism, always accompanied by a special touch and a hint of surrealism. He places special importance on the meticulous detail with which he handles his unconventional subjects.

Since the beginning of his career, Marco Grassi has developed a highly personal style that highlights the identity of the female subject at the specific moment they are painted. With his intense female portraits, Marco seeks to captivate the viewer, creating a silent dialogue between the subject and the audience.

Marco Grassi’s pieces are striking, combining pure decoration and hyper-realistic color. In his most recent works, Marco has abandoned the element that once defined his trademark style and technique: the decisive brushstrokes outlining his anatomical forms that lent stability to the figure. Instead, he now contrasts bold colors blended with a spatula and drippings to break them down and make them more subtle. His recent subjects display less certainty, which once allowed the figures to fully integrate with the complex weave of colors. Today, the backgrounds against which they are represented are more decisive and reflect the subjects’ facial expressions and intense silence, creating complicity with the observer.

Marco Grassi’s works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions and international fairs such as Art Basel, SCOPE Basel, and the Moscow Art Fair. He was selected to participate in the opening of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011.