Marco Urano

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Your background is in fashion and illustration. How did your experience in fashion influence your move into concept art and larger mediums?

As a fashion student I think it was an encounter and exchange that often happens between people doing things like that, in any case illustration was more geared toward expressing something on a smaller medium. Larger media appeal to me trivially more because of the size.

Can you tell us more about your creative process when working with stencils, and how it differs from traditional illustration techniques?

I usually work on photos on the PC, once they are finished I figure out how big I want to make them and adjust the size of the canvas or roll of paper.

Then I print out what I have worked on the custom paper, after which I start cutting out the figures I need with the cutter and apply them to the canvas with the color already put on (to make the stencil stick more and, consequently, to improve the rendering).

Then I add the spray or paint, then peel everything off and voilà, the job is done.

As for illustrations, I’ve experimented from charcoal, graphic pen, watercolor, colored pastels to trying to create something with melted wax.

Marco Urano | Souvenir d ‘ Italie | 2024

How does your Italian heritage, especially being from the south of Italy, shape your art?

A little bit, I’m very proud of my southern origins, I think looking around in certain contexts can make you realize both what you want to do and what you don’t want to do. Italian politics and the figure of TV presenters and characters about whom you know everything and nothing is very fascinating to me.

What role do societal themes such as freedom and identity play in your works, and how do you convey these themes using different mediums like guitars and canvas?

They play a pretty important role, especially identity. I think we currently live in a situation where everyone is something, and that creates anxiety for my generation.

Can you talk about the evolution of your style from smaller illustrations to more conceptual and large-scale pieces?

The evolution has been mostly on a visual level, the concept instead evolves with experiences, with what happens around me and what I see in the different contexts around me.

Marco Urano | Make great Sex | 2024

What message do you hope to convey with your recent works like “Libertas” and “Make Great Sex”?

With Libertas, of trying to come to grips with what we are being told and conveyed by music, TV and film, you could falsify everything and everyone would repeat that person’s phrase without knowing what it is

With Make great sex I liked to say something by taking some things from the original slogan with a font and colors that represent something “serious.”

Marco Urano | Libertas | 2024

How do you see your work evolving in the future? Are there any new mediums or themes you’re interested in exploring?

Honestly I don’t know yet, there are some types of work that don’t satisfy me while others I would like to explore, in any case something that has on a visual level a medium that is not small