Marco Scali is an artist who loves experimenting and is never satisfied: he constantly seeks something new, something cool and original. He owns the real soul of the artist.
Hello Marco! Tell us something about you, how did you find your passion for art?
Hi! To me it is not that easy to tell when it all started…Maybe it was inborn within me as I identify myself more as a creative than as an artist.
Let me clarify that: since I was a child I’ve felt the desire of creating, deeply rooted in myself. It wasn’t about the need to paint in a figurative, abstract or scenic way but I wanted to create something that was pleasing to the eye. I experimented and went in-depth of many creative manual skill such as painting in every possible way, resins, art design, photography, joinery, digital art…I can still hear the voice of my dad telling me “to do something and do it well”, probably he was right. However, I often define my nature as “my cursed blessing or vice versa, it’s the same”. Basically, I get bored easily so it’s impossible not to consider how this “characteristic” influenced my life. When I was a young boy, I thought that becoming a make-up artist would contribute to find my artistic way. Nowadays, I have to thank the art of make-up because it taught me good taste, chromatic harmonies and sense of beauty. However, you have to know I still don’t know what I like to do!
In your bio I read that you are “in love” with FLUO, right?
When I was a young boy my first love was photography, then acrylic paint, then I experimented oil painting thinking it was too difficult, but I immediately fell in love with it instead. My passion for fluo is something recent. A thought haunted me: my multifaceted nature was risking to not identify myself anymore: there were many pictorial themes and techniques…I wanted to discover something that could identify me, something mine.
I created Fluo because I was tired to not understand it fully. In addition, oil painting contributed to not find a way out from realism and I left the acrylic painting, too. One day, I decided to “spit on the canvas” without any preconceptions, any shades and without oil technique. That day I painted Jimmy Hendrix, and a typical nerd guy said: “WOW!”. That was the moment fluo style came into life. Between the colors I used there were actually fluorescent colors as well.
“However, I often define my nature as ‘my cursed blessing or vice versa, it’s the same’”
I think that every color can be related to a precise feeling. When you are working on something, do you follow your feelings or you try to match the shades in order that the result is harmonious, aesthetically speaking?
Absolutely YES, and I’ll tell you more, I got one of my mottos tattooed on my chest: “The representation of a concept or a feeling doesn’t matter…feeling is what matters”. I called my personal exhibition in Venice “Fluoemotion” because I wanted to thrill people and many of them congratulated with me thanks to the chromatic strength of fluo, ultraviolet lights and color combinations.
Art is experimentation, evolution and the encounter of the “old” with the “new”. When realizing your works, do you follow any particular technique or some models from the masters of the past?
I followed an artistic path hiding myself from the others. I have always thought, maybe making a mistake, that I could let something influence me, and so I followed a strictly individual path. However, I can confirm that in my artistic style the “old” often meets the “new”, I mean I often mix fluo technique, which is impactful and marked, with nuances: the natural oil colors. I must say I find myself in this style.
Your first works were paintings depicting mouths. Why the choice of this as a subject?
The mouth has always been a subject used in my life, in various creative ways, but the choice to deepen it as a theme stems from a necessity: I travel constantly and didn't like to paint while on the move. One day, I got a chance to participate in an exhibition presenting four of my works and I didn't have enough time to finish them, but since I made a commitment and I had to finish them, I decided to bring the work with me on my travel. That period was illuminating and I thought: “Why didn’t I do it before?!” Painting small subjects even on the road felt really enticing, so I started with a small subject over a small canvas and that’s when I deepened the subject of mouths.
“I would suggest to anybody to always dare and to take a chance with new things”
One of your latest collaborations is the one with “We Planet”. How did you come to the idea of patched worlds? It was then exposed in Piazza Duomo in Milan.
We Planet is not stranger to these initiatives, it’s already known thanks to the open air exhibition with decorated “Cows”. This time, the topic of sustainability was promoted exposing giant globes made with recycled plastic, and thanks to “the call to arms” of different artists, it has been possible to realize a hundred globes that will be auctioned by Sotheby’s. The proceeds will be donated to some charitable organizations. My first globe, well, actually my second, since the first one has been damaged, is inspired by a tattoo that I have on my left shoulder. It’s a heart full of patches and scars with a needle in it, as if it has just repaired from a seamstress.
“Resistance” is the title of my globe. You can easily understand the message behind it. Since it is an open air exhibition, I wanted to give a strong and clear message that everybody can understand, children as well. It shows a world that, despite human neglect, resists thanks to those who work to safeguard it. I used many techniques to create “Resistance”, included airbrush, and it has a lot of components.
“One day I decided to “spit on the canvas” without any preconceptions, any shades and without oil technique”
FLUOEMOTION was possible thanks to a research made over the years, trying different artistic concepts. Everything you did in your career has led you to the FLUOEMOTION, so it was written that it would have become your trademark. So I would say that daring in the artistic field has been the best choice, isn’t it?
I would suggest to anybody to always dare and to take a chance with new things, experimentations, because if you don’t chum you will never catch that creative magic sparkling.
Are you working on something new at the moment?
I am working to many projects and I’m studying in the digital art (really interesting), but also street art, glasses…
I would like to explain one of my initiative called “find the art of Scali”: it consists in abandoning small paintings (20X20) during my travels. I decide a place (a bench, a sidewalk, over an ATM) and I leave the paint there, then I take a picture of it and post the image on my social channels typing the word “Abandoned” and the reference city. Who will find the paint will also find a sheet of paper written in two languages in which I explain the initiative.
These are small feelings I gift now and then. From this initiative I got the idea of realizing a painting that represents the iconic bottle of Chanel “Number 5” that on 5th of May will turn 100 years. This is definitely a big high quality painting, a work worthy of a personal exhibition. This painting will be given to someone who participates to a funny treasure hunt… to the “5 of Scali Hunt” to be more precise.
Follow Marco and join him on this journey and to stay updated on his latest projects on instagram or his website.
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