THE ORIGINS

Mauro Pallotta, aka MAUPAL, was born in Rome in 1972. Here, he first attended the A. Caravillani Art School and later the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. The places of the artist's childhood and adolescence undoubtedly influenced the contents of his works: the proximity to the places of politics and the Vatican, and with it the intellectual stimuli of a multicultural city like Rome, have ensured that his sensibility could be enriched by a strong and natural propensity to use irony and political satire as vehicles of artistic expression, making his works heralds of messages of marked social and humanitarian relevance.

 

THE ARTISTIC PATH

From the very first experiments, the artist's tendency to use heterogeneous media and styles is evident, with the aim of being able to connect as much as possible the subject represented to the material used, wanting to create a synaesthetic experience with his works. The first works see the use of unusual and sometimes recycled materials, such as playing cards, corks, glass and plastic, objects stripped of their ordinary function and made repositories of alternative and often antithetical meanings to the original ones.

 

The works of the following period are characterized by the use of steel wool, which simultaneously acts as a canvas and sculptural material. With this technique, the images represented, although inspired by extremely different subjects, manage to conquer an aura of realism characteristic of the nature and uniqueness of each of the models used. After having achieved success in the field of Fine Art, with solo exhibitions in Rome, London and Miami, in 2014 the artist chooses the street as his area of interest and shifts his creative focus to Street

Art.

The first street opera, the “Super Pope”, quickly achieves a dazzling success all over the world, as a contemporary and unrepentant representation of Pope Francis, a symbol of a possible modernization of the Catholic Church. To write about him are the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Independent, The Sun, Times, Le Monde. Lequipe, Le Figaro, Le Parisienne; Der Spiegel, El Pais, El Mundo, O Globo and many more.

 

In 2016 the renowned New York magazine ARTNET included MAUPAL in the ranking of the thirty most influential street artists in the world. Today MAUPAL collaborates in initiatives on Street Art on a national and international level and its works are present in galleries and fairs all over the world.

He mainly exhibits in Italian galleries and museums, in London (UK) and Miami (USA).

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ENGLISH VERSION

 

MAUPAL (Mauro Pallotta, Rome 1972) studied at Accademia delle Belle Arti in Rome. In 2016, MAUPAL has been listed by ARTNET in the top 30 most influential and praised Street Artists in the world. Growing up in a unique city as Rome, which is a center of both politics and religion, has shaped MAUPAL's art. Indeed, political, social and humanitarian themes are the core of his art, using satire and irony to highlight current and urgent affairs.

 

Since the very beginning, MAUPAL was prone to experiment with different styles and media, trying to connect the subject of his arts to the actual media used by the artist. His initial works use indeed everyday-live objects such as cards, glass and plastic, giving them a new artistic meaning. Later on, MAUPAL starts to use steel wool as his main tool. This material is both the canvas and the principal sculptural mean for his various works. This material gives each subject a uniqueness maintaining the plastic realism of it.

 

Having had solo exhibitions in Rome, London and Miami, in 2014 MAUPAL switches his focus of interest to Street Art. His first street work, Super Pope - which shows the newly elected Pope as a possible symbol of modernization within the catholic church - becomes viral and reaches an unprecedented success, reaching different corners of the globe and receive praise in newspapers such as The Guardian, New York Times, Le Monde among others.

Nowadays, MAUPAL works are exposed in galleries all around the globe and he is present in a number of international art fairs.