Born in Italy in 1942, Marco Sassone was almost fated to become a painter. When his family moved to Florence – the seat of the Italian Renaissance – in 1954, his journey into painting began in earnest. Drawing influence and inspiration from the accomplishments of the Italian masters before him and befriending local painters, Sassone studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, learned from his contemporaries, and developed a style of his own drawing inspiration from 19th century Italian Impressionists; the structure of the surface and the technique of broken colour in his canvasses becoming defining characteristics of his painterly process.
Sassone’s storied career has taken him around the world. From Florence to the US, where he established himself on the American art scene in the late 70s, gaining international recognition for his groundbreaking exhibition Home on the Streets that opened in San Francisco in 1994 and travelled to Los Angeles, Florence, and Toronto.
His accomplishments are numerous, with not the least of which includes being knighted into “the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic” in 1982.
Marco Sassone currently lives and works in Toronto.
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Which ’hood are you in?
Yorkville
What do you do?
I am an artist – a painter.
What are you currently working on?
I’ve just completed a new body of work – ten new canvases – forming the basis for my new exhibition, Shrine at Berenson Fine Art. Shrine identifies a niche, a sacred place – for me: my studio, my work.
Paintings are not decorations for condominiums. They are love letters. They are shrines. The paint has absorbed a full range of the artist’s human emotions – the internal anxieties, the shiver of fear, and the ecstasy of creation.
This body of work invites us to consider not only the paintings as shrines, but to consider where we find solace in our own lives. Amidst the increasing chaos of the world around us, the artist asks us to find reverence for the everyday, the mundane – to create our own shrines.
Where can we find your work?
My work can be found at Berenson Fine Art in Yorkville. You can also visit my website.
