Marco Tamburro was born in Perugia in 1974. After earning a diploma in Architecture and Interior Design at the Art Institute in his hometown, he moved to Milan in 1994 and enrolled in the Scenography course at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Immersed in Milan's artistic scene, he began working as an assistant to photographers and set designers. This was a natural choice, as Tamburro had already developed a strong fascination with large theatrical spaces, where he imagined and created monumental painted panels, giving free rein to his visionary imagination.

Tamburro was especially drawn to painting and its powerful expressive potential. At a time when the direction of painting itself was being questioned, he saw it as a medium capable of transforming simple images into communication. His research explores the flexibility of painting and its ability to interact with other artistic languages, including theatre, photography, interior design, architecture and the elements required to build a stage environment. He first exhibited in Milan, where his works appeared in galleries and alternative urban spaces connected above all with fashion and design.

Long attracted by Rome for both its extraordinary artistic heritage and its intense metropolitan life, Tamburro eventually moved to the capital. There his passion for theatre found fertile ground: he collaborated with several theatre companies, devoted himself fully to painting, founded a cultural association dedicated exclusively to the visual arts and, in 1999, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

Beyond his academic training, Rome became the place where Tamburro consolidated a more mature and complete pictorial language. Surrounded by the city's artistic heritage and cultural energy, he entered the Roman art scene, meeting critics and gallery owners, exhibiting in galleries and taking part in numerous group exhibitions alongside emerging artists. His work received growing recognition and important awards.

His practice reflects on everyday life, repetition and the progressive depersonalisation of the individual within the contemporary metropolis. Human beings appear to exist without truly living, absorbed by an accelerated urban mechanism in which time moves so quickly that values themselves seem to lose meaning.

Within this scenario, the human figure occupies a marginal role in Tamburro's painting: a shadow or spectral presence consumed by time, crossing endless pedestrian paths and moving beneath vertiginous skyscrapers. The individual is overwhelmed by the modern metropolis, represented as a symbol of an aggressive and alienating power.

The photographic cut-outs that were prominent in his early works gradually receded, while painting became his dominant expressive medium. Large areas of black and white, interrupted by vivid flashes of red, convey the transformation of the “theatre of life” he seeks to represent. Humanity becomes a symbolic stage populated by figures resembling puppets caught in an endless network of forces beyond their control, while the artist places himself at the edge of the scene, sharing the same sense of powerlessness.

Recognition from collectors and the art market attracted increasing attention from galleries and public institutions. His works have been presented at major venues including MAXXI in Rome, the Venice Biennale, MACRO in Rome, Castel dell'Ovo in Naples, Palazzo della Penna in Perugia, Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence and Palazzo Frisacco in Udine. International exhibitions have taken his work to Miami, New York, São Paulo, China, Munich, London and Berlin.

Tamburro's work has been discussed in major Italian art publications and has received critical attention from figures including Renato Civello, Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Vito Riviello, Luca Beatrice, Enzo Santese, Barbara Martusciello, Floriano De Santis, Antonio Arevalo, Ennio Calabria and Gianluca Marziani, among others.

Solo Exhibitions

2025 – “Lampo a 4 mani Tamburro/Oldani”, Galleria Lampo, Milan.
2024 – “Wall”, curated by Angelo Bucarelli, Galleria Strati D’Arte, Rome.
2024 – “Tamburro incontra Canova”, Museo Atelier Antonio Canova, Rome.
2023 – “Gemelli”, curated by Luca Beatrice, MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome.
2021 – “Per aspera ad astra”, curated by Antonio Zoccoli, Musei San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome.
2019 – “Quattro mani”, Museo Civico Palazzo della Penna, Perugia.
2016 – “Tracce contemporanee”, curated by Carlo Vignapiano, Villa Vara, Rome.
2014 – “Acqua”, curated by Samuele Pindarini, Galleria Restarte, Bologna.
2013 – “Tuto li resto è un’altra storia”, curated by Alberto Agazzani, Galleria Restarte, Bologna.
2013 – “Free Way”, curated by Antonio Arevalo, Galleria Rossmut, Rome.
2012 – “New York”, Museo Mazzullo – Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano, Taormina.
2012 – “Sacro e profano”, curated by Luca Beatrice, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence.
2011 – “Urban”, Black Square Gallery, Miami.
2009 – “Life Live”, curated by Luca Beatrice, MACRO Testaccio – La Pelanda, Rome.
2008 – “Teatro quotidiano”, curated by Paola Di Gianmaria and Lorenzo Canova, Galleria Michelangelo, Rome and Castel dell’Ovo, Naples.
2006 – “Visioni urbane”, curated by Maurizio Sciaccaluga, Monocromo Contemporary Art, Rome.
2006 – “Costruzione costante”, Palazzo del Commercio, Lugo (Ravenna).
2006 – “City”, Galerie an der Pinakothek der Moderne / Barbara Ruetz, Munich.
2005 – “Visioni”, curated by Enzo Santese, Galleria Nuova Artesegno, Udine.
2005 – “Senza titolo”, curated by Renato Civiello, Galleria Giorgio Ghelfi, Verona.
2005 – “Visioni”, Galleria Lombardi, Rome.
2005 – “Il visionario dell’esistente”, curated by Gabriele Simongini, Galleria Contemporanea, Pescara.
2005 – “Nell’occhio del ciclone”, curated by Enzo Santese, Galleria Nuova Artesegno, Udine.
2003 – “Metropoli”, curated by Enzo Santese, Polveriera Napoleonica di Contrada Foscarini and Galleria Nuova Artesegno, Udine.

Group Exhibitions

2024 – “Arte in Nuvola”, Galleria Maison Bosi, Rome.
2023 – “Itinerari di Arte e Spiritualità”, MIPS – Università Cattolica, Milan.
2022 – “Giocare a regola d’arte”, curated by Ermanno Tedeschi, MOMUC – Museo della Ceramica, Mondovì.
2022 – Museo Storico Reale Mutua, Turin; MAN – Museo Archeologico, Naples.
2017 – “Paintings”, Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa.
2015 – “Made in Warhol”, curated by Julie Kogler and Giuseppe Stagnitta, Palazzo Corvaja, Taormina.
2014 – “Imago Mundi – Praestigium Italia”, curated by Luca Beatrice, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin.
2013 – “Visioni in blocco”, curated by Antonio Arevalo, Galleria Rossmut, Rome.
2013 – “L’arte è un romanzo”, curated by Luca Beatrice, Museo Civico di Palazzo della Penna, Perugia.
2012 – “POPISM”, curated by Luca Beatrice, Museo Michetti, Francavilla al Mare.
2012 – “Art Now”, curated by Francesca Porreca, Fondazione Luciana Matalon, Milan.
2012 – “La corte del contemporaneo”, Palazzo Faratini, Amelia.
2012 – “Appunti e contrappunti”, PDAC – Palazzo Ducale Arte Contemporanea, Maierà.
2011 – “Viva Italia”, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; “Dopo la tempesta, la calma”, curated by Vittorio Sgarbi, Lazio Pavilion – 54th Venice Biennale, Venice.
2011 – “Marco Tamburro / Bernard Aubertin”, Galleria De Nisi, Caserta.
2011 – “La vertigine della visione”, curated by Gabriele Simongini, Ex Palazzo della Pretura, Sassoferrato.
2010 – “Antonio e Marco Tamburro. Dal colore al bianco e nero”, Museo d’Arte Moderna Vittorio Colonna, Pescara.
2010 – “Un mosaico per Tornareccio”, curated by Gabriele Simongini, Tornareccio.
2009 – “Quasi monocromaticamente”, Nuova Officina d’Arte, Catania.
2008 – “Photography”, curated by Chiara Canali, Monocromo Contemporary Art, Rome.
2008 – “Due generazioni. Antonio e Marco Tamburro”, curated by Enzo Santese, Palazzo Frisacco, Tolmezzo.
2008 – “Lettura fresca. Libri d’artista”, Musée ed OlHM, Bologna.
2007 – “Shapes and Colours of Italy”, Grand Theatre Gallery, Shanghai.
2007 – “Sign City”, curated by Gianluca Marziani, Monocromo Contemporary Art, Rome.
2007 – “Contemporaneamente”, curated by Giuseppe Stagnitta, Torre Vignazza, Giardini Naxos.
2004 – Italian Pavilion – XI International Art Biennale of Cairo, Cairo.
2004 – “Immagine presente”, curated by Lucio Barbera, Le Ciminiere, Catania.
2001 – “Tamburro / Mascetti a 4 mani”, curated by Marco Tonelli, Galleria Lombardi, Rome.