Marco Cianfanelli (born 30 November 1970) is a South African artist who has been involved in a wide range of projects involving art, architecture and public spaces. Cianfanelli combines computer-generated, data-driven applications with human, expressive, gestural acts to create tension in his work. Cianfanelli is one of a handful of South African artists whose work successfully spans the public and domestic sphere. He began his career painting landscapes and continues to be concerned with romanticized space and that which is marginalized through the very act of romanticizing. Cianfanelli's slick, pared-down, iconographic recent works are intricately linked with the complexity of loving South Africa.
One of Cianfanelli's most recognisable works is the depiction of Nelson Mandela's head that is located at the site of Mandela's capture in Howick, South Africa.
Career
Education
In 1992, Cianfanelli received his BA/FA (painting) from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Exhibitions
2012 University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 SA’ s first Annual International Land Art Event/ Plettenberg Bay
2009 Absent Fields, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009 Contemporary sculpture in the landscape / Nirox Foundation; Johannesburg
2008 Intervention, UNISA Art Gallery, Tswane
2008 Production Marks, Grahamstown Festival, KZNSA Gallery, The Goethe Institute
2008 Heptad, The Art Space, Johannesburg
2007 Spier Contemporary, Stellenbosch, Cape Town
2007 Positive, Sun City
2007 Aardklop 10, Potchefstroom
2006 Projected Development: return to begin, Aardklop Festival artist, Potchefstroom 2005 Projected Development, Gallery Momo, Johannesburg 2004 Brett Kebble Art Awards, Cape Town 2003 ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg 2002 Once were Painters, KKNK, Oudtshoorn. 2001 We Love our customers, Hungarian Embassy, New York 2000 Tour-guides of the inner city – URBAN FUTURES Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg 2000 Hoerikwaggo, South African National Gallery, Cape Town 2000 SASOL New Signatures Revisited, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn 2000 Emotions and Relations, Sandton civic Art Gallery, Johannesburg 1999 Channel, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town 2002 Joint exhibition with Stephanus Rademeyer, The Art Space, Johannesburg 1998 Atlantis, Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town 1998 ! Xoe – Site Specific, Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape 1997 Taking Stock, Co-curated and exhibited, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Johannesburg 1997 Cyst: Works in Paint, Good Hope Gallery, The Castle, Cape Town 1997 No. 4, Hillbrow Fort, Johannesburg 1996 Record, Art Space, Newtown Cultural Precinct, Johannesburg