Mark Guglielmo (b. 1970, Queens, New York) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, collage, and photography, incorporating a diverse range of materials such as cut-up paper, cardboard, oil, acrylic, fabric, gold leaf, and corrugated steel. Guglielmo is best known for his layered figurative works that intertwine current events, social history, and the human psyche, to critically explore themes of race, class, migration, and power. Collage is central to his practice and a bridge between his art and music. For years, he employed similar techniques producing hip-hop, sampling, truncating, and reconfiguring existing materials into new compositions. Through his unique blend of media and technique, Guglielmo addresses some of the most pressing issues of our time, sparking healthy dialogue and contributing to contemporary discourse.

Born and raised in New York, Guglielmo roots his work in the exploration of the self and the complexities of the human experience. His fragmented portraits of everyday people based on archival and photographic reference material peel back the layers of social, cultural, and personal history to reveal the raw reality of life, in the tradition of the tranches de vie of realism and naturalism. Guglielmo’s approach invites viewers into the inner worlds of his subjects to consider the nuances of identity, place, family, culture, and belonging. Significant projects in his oeuvre include “Portraits of My People” (2021-2024), a collection honoring his Italian ancestors that reveals the fraught process of race-making in America, merging family lineage with broader cultural and social questions. Additionally, his series of photo-collage portraits, interviews, and field recordings examining contemporary Cuban identity, entitled “Cubaneo” (2015-2017) and created on 3 trips to the island, expanded his enquiries at the intersection of the personal and collective narrative, heritage, international relations, and artistic diplomacy.

Guglielmo’s work has been featured in numerous critically acclaimed exhibitions, including at The Loveland Museum in Colorado; Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in Boston, Massachusetts; Central Connecticut State University in New Britain; Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro; The New York State Museum in Albany; and von Auersperg Gallery in Deerfield, Massachusetts. His pieces are held in both public and private collections, among them Emory Healthcare in Atlanta; The Calandra Institute in New York; and the City of Loveland, Colorado. Guglielmo has been awarded multiple honors, prizes, and grants, including from The Puffin Foundation; Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts; Deerfield Academy TEDx Talk; Community Mural Institute Artist Fellowship at Fresh Paint Springfield; and The Williston Northampton School Artist-in-Residence. A former rapper and music producer, Guglielmo aka Vesuveo rapped with Eminem on the Top 10 hit “Green and Gold.” He released 8 albums, 4 with his group The Anonymous, and shared the stage with KRS-One, Biz Markie, and Black Eyed Peas while his music forms the soundtrack to Pimp My Ride, Jersey Shore, Cribs, and Beavis and Butt-Head. He currently serves as a Community Advisor for the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts’ ValleyCreates Program, in partnership with MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists. He lives and works in western Massachusetts.

SELECTED PRESS
From Hip Hop to Collage - A Conversation with Mark Guglielmo, Artist & Place Podcast
Mark Guglielmo Large-Scale Collages Explore Themes of Identity, Connecting Point TV, NEPM
Brainard Carey with Artist Mark Guglielmo, WYBC Yale Radio
Cuba in Transition: Narrative & Perspective’, an art show, Mass Appeal, WWLP TV
Mark Guglielmo with Raquel Obregon, Tertulia Radio, New England Public Media
Mark Guglielmo and Waleska Santiago-Centeno with Natalia Munoz,” Vaya con Muñoz, WHMP Radio
Mark Guglielmo Exhibits ‘Shards of Illusion’ at A.P.E., Paradise City Press TV, Northampton Open Media
Photographer sees ghosts, spirits in his work, The Reminder
New exhibit pays homage to Cuba, Greenfield Recorder
Loveland Museum hosts vibrant photomosaics, Reporter-Herald
Art Maker: Mark Guglielmo, Daily Hampshire Gazette
Exposición de arte ‘Cubaneo’ por el artista Guglielmo, El Pueblo Latino
Collage Artist Shows Cuba Through the Lens of Reality, Bay State Banner
Cuban Complexity: Mark Guglielmo’s Cubaneo, Big Red & Shiny
Exposición de arte 'Cuba in Transition, El Pueblo Latino
Mark Guglielmo’s Portrait of Contemporary Cuba, Art New England
ArtBeat: Transported to Cuba through ‘Photo-Mosaics’, Greenfield Recorder
Cuba Exhibit Turns Everyday People Into Visual Art, The Republican
Memory & Reality Converge in Guglielmo’s Detailed Collages, Valley Advocate
Guglielmo in Transition, Take Magazine
Right Next Door: Mark Guglielmo, Rapper, Artist, The Huffington Post