BIOGRAPHY and CURRICULUM Mauro Stampatori was born in Italy (Rome).

At the age of sixteen, he entered a painting studio in Rome's famous Via Margutta, where the pictorial renewal of the sixties was bursting forth. In 1969 he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture at Rome's University of Studies. In 1971, he exhibited in Rome at the "Galleria Michelangelo" in Via Margutta: it was his first one-man show, where he presented works produced during a long stay in England and Ireland. Success came at once. The inspiration draw from Jack Kerouac's prose, Bob Dylan's songs and Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poetry, gave the young artist's painting an intense strength representing all the emotions connected with The Beat Generation. A poetic testimony of the search for identity that prompts one to find new truths and new values. From that fruitful period, linked to solipsistic and representational art, only a few pictures still remain in the artist's possession, from which he has never wished to be separated, inspired by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's well-known poem Nel Parco del Golden Gate and that matured during the reading of Jack Kerouac's On the road, the other works having been acquired by Italian and foreign collectors. In 1973, in response to the urging of his inspirers, colleagues and critics, he prepared another oneman show in Rome. His promising talent attracted the attention of a wide public and a great number of gallery owners who began to believe in his artistic sensitivity. For Stampatori, 1975, represents a particularly significant artistic volte-face. The encounter with the architectural dimension changed the general theme of his works that now, began to express strong feelings, portraying dream like Roman faades. In 1976, he graduated in Architecture with first class honors. His new style (firstly Roman faades and then Roman roofs), expressed in deliberately uncertain manner, in contrast with vibrant colours, gained approval in two more "One man-shows". In that same year, Steve Saler, the United States Art critic of "Newsweek" in Paris, met Stampatori, fell in love with his art, acquiring pictures that where to become part of the "Steve Saler Foundation" U.S.A. From 1977 to 1979 Stampatori lived a period of intense cultural ferment during which, for about two years, his studio was thronged with painters, sculptors, poets, art critics and intellectuals, enriching his experience in a vast artistic debate. These were the years when the mittel-European culture of the first decades of the twentieth century influenced his painting, giving the facades an impalpable pathos: empty palaces that seem to waver between being exchanged over the centuries and sinking into nothing, just like the Habsburg empire that sadly and irretrievably crumbles in the pages of Joseph Roth. These were also the years of the consolidation of his success characterized by three important exhibitions in Rome in 1977, 1978 and 1979.In those years his new canvasses returned to the old themes reelaborated as a result of cultural experiences and of life characterized by their own very special sensitivity. From the early Nineties to 1999 the artist came into contact with the art of other continents. Those were the years of travel and fruitful stays in Africa, Asia. Central America and also of some very personal emotions experienced in the atmosphere of New York. His painting techniques, especially due to the influence of central African cultures, became composed of many varied materials. The colours reflect the vibrant hues of the Oceans, the magical and living images. The encounter with the Afro-Cuban environments marks those years as the passing towards a natural abstractionism. The chromatic shading evokes strong emotions linked to nature's elements.

During these years, in which he devoted himself mainly to architecture, he displayed his artistic output in his studio only for the benefit of friends, faithful admires and clients. His paintings adorn very modern homes, romantic "bistros", prestigious hotels, important professional studios and luxurious villas. In 2000, as the result of constant urging from the one who lovingly shares life with him, he exhibited again in a one man show in Rome, in the splendid setting of the ancient Palazzo De' Ricci near Via Giulia. And once more it is a great success. His paintings, yet again, are travelling the roads of the world........ By Franco Avenia From 2000 up to 2012 Mauro Stampatori exhibited many other times, all with the Patronage of the Commons, all in Italy: in Tuscany, Museo Archeologico di Scansano (GR) 2007, Fortezza di Montalcino (SI) 2008,in Ascoli Piceno, in the very beautiful Palazzo De' Capitani i9n 2008, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Pisa 2009, Castiglione della Pescaia (Gr) nel 2012. Now he has a permanent exhibition in his own small Gallery, as a point of reference, in Scansano ( Gr ). During this latest decade he had a very rich production of works, especially big paintings, most of the times roofs, Roman roofs again, but also roofs of fantasy, with his usual shining wonderful colours!!!!!! With regard the technique, Stampatori usually use acrylics, sometimes mixed with tempera and oil, and also paint on canvas and/or wood tables. The sizes of the paintings are varied, the latest have been in the region of cm.120x140, the largest was up to cm. 100x200, or more. He enjoys big painting, and also cm.100x100. Obviously, paintings have standard sizes too, for example, cm.50x60, cm.40x50, cm.80x100 and so on. Favourites are the "Roofs" with or without the Roman skyline, but "Fantasy Type Roofs" have also proved very popular, you will note that the latest paintings have been executed in an informal style. He discovered that his use of colour is highly appreciated, as the technique, which is applied with brush and other tools. When painting people he ensure the mood is "characteristic" and diverse, please refer to the websites, the first is www.mauro-stampatori.com, the second www.artgallerystudio.weebly.com On the first website, www.marco-stampatori.com you will note two periods depicted by the "Via Margutta" figurative, which was a great success, and the second period, entitled "Facades of Rome". He used mixed techniques in both cases: please note the middle of the "Old Building XVI Century Facade" and how it pays great attention to detail, utilizing watercolors between sky and ground, but also very intense tempera and oil colours executed with a spatula. On the second web-site, www.artgallerystudio.weebly.com you can glimpse his very latest creations (2011/2014): Please note the roofs painted in stronger colours and evanescent tonalities. By the way, Stampatori and his wife really enjoy British culture, and often travel to the UK, which is one of the reasons I contacted you in the first place.