Tech Art

Mario De Leo

Mario De Leo, 63 years old, lives in Monza (Milan) and works in Lissone at the Perlarte studio. In the seventies he alternated painting with music, working with maestro Giancarlo Disnan, who took care of the arrangements of all of De Leo's compositions for live performances as well as recordings, leading to the release of his first LP entitled "Suonata situazione". As well as receiving various awards as a singer-songwriter in 1980, he also composed the soundtrack for "Sole, acqua, terra, vento", a film by American director Jane R.Spaiser, produced by the company called "I Cammelli" founded by Turin director Daniele Segre.

With ethnomusicologist and actor Moni Ovadia he founded the cooperative "l'Orchestra", leading to his encounter with popular music scholar Michele Straniero, with whom he founded the Studio Nazionale di Musica Etnica.

A meeting with poet and journalist Luigi Bianco, led to the founding of cultural magazine "Osaon" followed by the bimonthly cultural exchange "Harta", produced by "h:orarte", the studio that De Leo shared with Max Marra during the nineties. De Leo uses drawing, sculpture and painting , blending various techniques. Since the mid eighties Carlo Cazzamali (collector and artistic director of "La Pesa" gallery in Monza) has taken an interest in De Leo's art , promoting one-man exhibitions in order to get the artist's work known.

In 1992 he exhibited his work on the cone at the Cuban institute "Luis Casas Romero" in Florida. In 1993 he took part in fairs in Bari and Bologna, the "Decouvertes" art fair in Paris and the international fair in Turin. The following year he was invited to show his work in the travelling exhibition "De Hominis Digitate" curated by Galleria D'Ars of Milan, a show at the Guglielmo Marconi school of New York, the Italian lyceum of Paris, the museum of the city of Mirandola and the "Frank V. De Bellis Collection", San Francisco State University.

In 1994 he exhibited his work on the printed circuit at the art exhibition "Italian Reporter" at the Metropolitan Museum of Tokyo and Kyoto, in Japan. In 1995 he held a one-man exhibition at Folini Arte Contemporanea in Lugano (Switzerland). At the same time he worked on and completed fifteen canvases for "Via Crucis", commissioned by Mr. Bruno Amati of Lissone, Milan.

In 1998 he made a sculpture entitled "Fonema futuribile", for Etipack in Cinisello Balsamo (Milano) and held a one man exhibition at Palazzo Ducale di Revere (Mantua) while working on "Points of Ascension" in the church of S. Vito in Somma Lombardo (Varese).

Some of the artist's works are permanently exhibited at Italian and overseas galleries such as the "Young Museum" in Revere (Mantua), the civic gallery of Ruffano (Lecce), Castello di Sartirana (painting acquired under suggestion of italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro - Pavia), the museum of modern and contemporary art in Taverna (Cosenza) and the Guang Dong Museum of Art in Canton, Cina.

In 2001 he held a one-man exhibition at "Fabbrica Eos" in Milan, presented by Flaminio Gualdoni and became the official delegate for Regione Lombardia at an international conference in Cantone Sangallo, Switzerland.

In 2005 he held his one-man exhibition "Atti Iconografici", curated by Claudio Rizzi, at Galleria Biolchini Arte Contemporanea. In the same year he exhibited his work in the travelling exhibition "Metafore di paesaggio", curated by Claudio Rizzi and Raffaele De Grada, Museo Parisi Valle in Maccagno, Varese. This museum acquired another of the artist's works in 2006.

In 2006 he set up the exhibition "Return to Ithaca", an anthological show to celebrate the centenary of the birth of artist Domenico Cantatore, his fellow countryman, curated by Mariapina Mascolo and Mario Volpe and sponsored by the council of Ruvo di Puglia.

In 2007 he took part in the travelling exhibition "Generazione anni '40" curated by Raffaele De Grada and Claudio Rizzi (Museo Parisi Valle di Maccagno, Varese; Spazio Guicciardini in Milan; Museo Gazoldo degli Ippoliti, Mantua).

In the same year he exhibited at Spazio Tadini in Via Jommelli, Milan.

In 2008 he took part in the presentation of the event "Mai Dire Mao" (Parma Expo), curated by Philippe Daverio.

In 2011 his personal exhibition take place at the "Museo d'arte contemporanea di Lissone", organized by Claudio Rizzi and endorsed by Comune di Lissone, Regione Lombardia e Provincia di Monza e Brianza.

Some works