Artists

Marzio Tamer

Profile

Egg tempera painter and watercolourist

Tempera tutorial video, please click here

Marzio Tamer was born in 1964 in Schio, a town in the region of Veneto, northern Italy. He studies in Milan where he lives and works. An autodidact painter and profound connoisseur of nature and of its rhythms, for his debut in 1993 he is fostered by the Salamons. They encourage him to leave acrylic painting aside in order to begin experimenting with egg tempera.

In a few years, this technique turns out to be the most congenial to the artist's intents. The meticulous attention underlying paintings in egg tempera absorbs Tamer in very long lead times, and once more he is supported in testing different techniques. In 2002 Tamer begins a fruitful journey in fully understanding acquarelle, through the dry brush style.

Few years later he masters this new technique like few other artists, being able to benefit from the typical freshness of this language. At the same time he doesn't neglect his usual formal perfectionism and doesn't betray his impeccable point of view, recognizable despite the variety of subjects depicted.
His paintings are appreciated by both the public and the critics, unquestioningly. Journalists of this field, who value his intellectual autonomy from trendy genres, write widely about him.

In 1999 he exhibits in London, at the Mathiessen Gallery, in Duke Street, where he is spotted by Timothy Standring, curator of the Paul Getty Museum and still chief curator of the Denver Art Museum. Standring's enthusiasm for Tamer's pieces fostered the author's visibility in the USA.
In 2005 Salamon&Co. organizes a retrospective dedicated to the ten year-long activity performed together and on that occasion issues an exhaustive catalogue, published by De Luca Editori d'Arte.

Tamer’s point on view:
In spite of the technical virtuosity, his painting is permeated of profound poetry, unicity and modernity. His main source of inspiration is nature: landscapes and portraits of animals. Although he invents and makes his landscapes in an atelier, the verisimilitude with reality is surprising. Instead, the portraiture of animals is a different process: before he deeply observes immersed in nature, later, once he acquired the exact physiognomy of the animals, Tamers places them in a contest with no elements, empty: he calls them “suspended backgrounds”. Yet although unreal, they give a sense of space. And it is this setting that makes his production unprecedented.
The seeming simplicity characterizing all his paintings derives from a profound attention to the composition that allows him to interpret the most complex atmospheres depicting them with an exemplary neatness.
Another point of strength of Tamer's paintings is the so refined palette choice, often limited to few colours per painting - or so it appears - of rare formal elegance.
Marzio's iconographic selection shows a recognizable and never predictable point of view, subjects or atmospheres are rarely replicated. The profound aesthetic research and the artist's strong personality permeate his painting: poetic, unique, unprecedented, intelligent and sensibile.

Presentation

Video

Marzio Tamer | Artista della Natura

Selected exhibitions

Selection of the most important exhibitions:

2022 - Premio Michetti, on the occasion of the 73 edition of one of the eldest Italia art awards, selections of paintings curated by Nunzio Giustozzi, fondazione Michetti, Francavilla al Mare

2021 - Marzio Tamer, Essence and time, Jonathan Cooper gallery, London 

2017/2018 - Marzio Tamer Pittore per Natura at Museum of Nautural History of Milan, curated by Stefano Zuffi and Lorenza Salamon

2016 - Nature the art of Marzio Tamer at MUSE (Renzo Piano Museum), Trento, curated by Stefano Zuffi and Lorenza Salamon.

2015 - Expo, Tesoro d’Italia, he rapresented his italian region

2014 - Water Views, XXI Century Landscape Watercolourists; Artbox, Vicenza, by Marco Fazzini

2014 - Botanical Art in third Millenium, Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, London,

2013 - Arte Botanica nel terzo millennio, Museo della grafica di Pisa, by Pisa University, prof. Lucia Tongiorni and prof. Alessandro Tosiby S. Sherwood, L. Tongiorgio Tomasi e A. Tosi.

2012 - Nature Redivive, a cura di G.M. Prati e P. Lesino, Palazzo Guidobono, Tortona

2011- Invited alla 54° Esposizione Internazionale di Venezia, Palazzo Tè a Mantova, Semptember 2011. He presents the watercolour landscape Rio Stagno.

2010 - Marzio Tamer, Acquarelli e Dry Brushes, Milano, Salamon&C

2010 - Premio Arciere, Isola di Sant’Antioco, Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto

2009- Salotto Luminoso, The Madden Art Museum, Greenwood, Colorado, U.S.A., by Timothy Standring

2009- Contemplazioni, Castello Malatesta, Rimini, by Alberto Agazzani

2008 -Marzio Tamer, opere recenti, Milano, Salamon&C, introduction by Nicoletta Pallini and technique text by L. Salamon 

2005- Marzio Tamer, Inexplicability, 10 anni d’attività, De Luca editore, introduction by Timothy Standring*, Milano

2001- Marzio Tamer, dipinti recenti, Milano, Salamon&C

2000- Marzio Tamer, recent paintings, Londra, Matthiesen Fine Art Ltd., with the contribute of International WWF

1999-2000- Sulla pittura. Artisti Italiani sotto i Quarant’anni, Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano curated by Marco Goldin

1999- Bestiario, Galleria Davico, Torino

1998-  Marzio Tamer, Castello di Sant’Alessio (Pavia)

1994-1996-1998 - Marzio Tamer, Milano, Salamon&C (with texts by Marina Mojana, Marco Carminati e Stefano Zuffi)

1985 - Pittori naturalistici, Milano, Premio Airone (award)

 

Museum

The Art Museum of Denver, Colorado, owns two paintings by Tamer, bought in 2010 and in 2012.

Art Fair

Biennale dell’Antiquariato Milano, Miart, ArtVerona, Roma Contemporary Art, Mint

Olympia (London), Masterpiece (London), Art and Antiques (New York, Armory)

Award

Figurativas, selected by the committee of the most important International Award of Figurative Arts, Barcelona 2019