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Marco Tulio expertly paints canvases in which familiar, realistic scenarios are imbued with a supernatural force, where the strange is naturalized and the normal mystified. In these pictures, he creates his unique take on magical realism in which the internal and external poetics of existence are pronounced.

Tulio’s paintings are like confrontational history tableaus – luxury objects faithfully depicting a romanticized idea of “Western” culture whose enduring historical dominance and complex influence persist. His images are both an homage to and subtle critique of this past, a narrative largely transmitted via art history. This topography of forms is mined and subverted through a contemporary collision of imagery both beautiful and haunting, descriptive and playful, allegorical and historical. Tulio takes the dual bedrocks of Western civilization, Christianity and Greek culture, inverting and making them surreal, as if Magritte, De Chirico and Dali were mashed up against Michelangelo, medieval Dutch landscape and Hellenistic figuration.

Blending the narratives of sweeping history with the affect of the individual imagination, Tulio’s work is about the soul existing both inside and outside world forces that are both palpable and imagined. The result is a lush exploration of mystery and meaning through classically inspired painting that understands the material and immaterial as struggling against each other in forming our understanding of life.

Marco Tulio
The Dioscuri 2023
Oil on linen  48″ x 60″
$26,000.00

Marco Tulio
Girl with apples  2023
Oil on panel  12″ x 9″ 
$2,500.00

MarcoTulio
Dove  2023
Oil on panel  12″ x 9″
$2,500.00

The Gamble  2018
Oil on linen  36″ x 48″
$16,000.00

Monarchs  2022
Oil on linen  20″ x 24″
$6,000.00

Sibyl  2022
Oil on linen  24″ x 18″
$6,000.00

Jay and Banana  2020
Oil on linen  14″ x 18″ 
$3,500.00

Paloma  2018
Oil on canvas  18″ x 24″
$5,000.00

Townsend’s Warbler  2022
Oil on linen  9″ x 12″ 
$2,250.00

Macaw  2021
Oil on linen  24″ x 20″
$6,000.00

Cat  2017
Oil on canvas  14″ x 18″
$3,000.00

2655 Granville Street Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada
e: info@iantangallery.com
t: 604.738.1077

Gallery Hours

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 11AM to 5PM
Wednesday: 11AM to 5PM
Thursday: 11AM to 5PM
Friday: 11AM to 5PM
Saturday: 11AM to 5PM
Sunday: 12PM to 5PM

Also available by appointment.

Ian Tan Art Gallery © 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.