Marcelot – Artist

BIOGRAPHY

Marcelot is the artist’s name of Marcelo Tomaz Galvão de Castro, born 1965 in Potim, Guaratinguetá, Brazil.

The artist discovered his artistic talent early on. In his homeland he already studied art education in Pindamonhangaba (1987-1989), with a focus on theater. As a teacher he worked in different schools. Active in Europe since 1990, he studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1991-1997), Germany. Here he was able to find his artistic identity, and continue to develop it. In the time of his training fall numerous exhibitions that show him as a sensitive observer of the world and creative deformer of the supposedly well-known. Above all, the artist works with pre-ideas of objects and their symbolic value. His work shows a wide range; he gets his inspiration from books, conversations with friends or colleagues, music, poetry, media, etc., which he realizes in „projects“.
Two of them have met with a great response from the public and the press.
After studying art, he made a postgraduate in art therapy in the same institute (1997-1999). Thus, he studied in separate stages the three level of art: the educational level, the artistic level and the therapeutic level.

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After completing his studies, in 2002 he accepted an invitation to work as an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital in Münsterlingen, Switzerland. The following time is marked by immersion in the human psyche. He also completed a training as a group analyst in the SGAZ (Seminar for group analysis Zurich – 2003-2007). He did not exhibit much during this phase.
Since 2009 active as a freelance artist, matured, the artist is practicing art again. 2015 he got the Swiss citizenship. He completed successfully his first artist-in-residence in the FAAP (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado – Oct. to Dec. 2018) in São Paulo, Brazil.
He completed his second artist residency in the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China (Dec. 2019 – Feb. 2020), with an Open Studio.
(https://www.swatch-art-peace-hotel.com/virtual-museum/Marcelot-400)
From his third successful artist residency at CoGalleries in Berlin, an interview came out where he talks about his project. (To the Article)
Invitation from Swatch to participate in the Biennale of Venice 2022
In 2023, he took part in the 5th ARTY Biel/Bienne. His project, which won him first prize at the event, was a bust of the Biel/Bienne-born writer Robert Walser and a tree with books of his complete works, made of crumpled newspaper and wool on a metal structure.
Exhibition ‚OLTRE IL CONFINE‘, Berbenno, Bergamo, from 17 to 25 August 2024. The artist looked at what happened in the area before, during and after the Napoleonic Wars. He created two coins used at that time with newspaper, as well as three paintings and drawings.
In the following years, he completed artist residencies in Xingú (an area in the Amazon region of Brazil), Athens, London and Assisi.
He was invited to hold a solo exhibition at gallery Anggrek Agency (13 February to 6 March 2026), for which he chose the theme ‘Patterns & Eros’. He combines tattoos and porcelain to create an ‘object cosmos’, which he interprets through oil paintings and photography. The objects depicted are to be sold together with the artworks.

New challenges will follow.

Current Projects

Patterns & Eros

Tattooed skin and painted porcelain share a common language of surface. Both carry stories, ornaments, fractures and meanings – and both exist in the tension between fragility and permanence…

Biennale of Venice 2022

My work is often inspired by contrasts and challenges. invited by SWATCH, I juxtaposed the lion of Venice in front of the bust of Napoleon.

Ancient of Today

In my project „Ancient of Today“, I transpose characters of Greek mythology in our age. I took notice that the human being in cyber-age has the same needs as people of former times.