Marco Tirelli was born in 1956 in Rome, where he lives and works.

He began to exhibit in the second half of the 1970s. At the end of the decade, he set up his own studio in the spaces of the former Pastificio Cerere in the San Lorenzo district of Rome, together with the other artists of the New Roman School.

In the 1980s, he took part in the Venice Biennale for the first time, with a solo room in the Aperto ’82 section, marking the beginning of his regular participation in international exhibitions, such as the 11th Graz Biennial Trigon ’83. During this period, he established an ongoing relationship with the Galleria L’Attico in Rome and his works started to enter the collections of leading Italian museums, including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome and GAM in Turin. He also showed his work in important galleries, such as the Bernier Gallery in Athens (1979), Annina Nosei Gallery in New York (1985), and Galerie Folker Skulima, Berlin (1987).

The 1990s kicked off with an exhibition at the American Academy in Rome, where Tirelli’s large installation of drawings was juxtaposed with Sol LeWitt’s Wall Drawings, followed by a solo room at the 44th Venice Biennale. During this decade the artist participated in major events such as the Sydney Biennale, the Bienal de São Paulo, Prospect ’93 at the Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, and the 12th Rome Quadriennale, as well as exhibiting at international venues like the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva and Palais Liechtenstein in Vienna.

In the early 2000s his research extended to the environment: in 2001 he created a site-specific installation at the Fondazione Volume! and in 2002 the Kunsthalle in Darmstadt gave him a major retrospective, which later traveled to the GAM in Bologna.

During these years he exhibited in Italian museums, such as the Mart in Rovereto and PAC in Milan. In 2009 he executed the large sculptures for the Gori Collection at Fattoria di Celle.

Between 2010 and 2020 he had solo shows at the Museo di Palazzo Fortuny in Venice and MACRO in Rome; other exhibition projects were hosted by the MAXXI in Rome and Museo Madre in Naples. In 2013, he presented a vast installation for the Italian Pavilion, curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, at the 55th Venice Biennale. That same year he displayed various works created together with Patti Smith, both at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and at the Milan Triennale. He also presented an exhibition, together with works by Bernd and Hilla Becher, at the German Academy in Rome, Villa Massimo. Other important solo shows were held at the Fondazione Pescheria – Centro Arti Visive, Pescara (2014), Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne Métropole (2017), Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Hong Kong (2018), and the House of Art at České Budějovice, Prague (2020).

In the 2020s he continued to participate in international exhibitions, among which the solo shows at the Cardi Gallery in London and the Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Antwerp, and most recently Metafisica/Metafisiche, which opened in January 2026 at Palazzo Reale in Milan. Tirelli’s works are collected by numerous museums and national and international institutions. Among them is Proteo, dating to 2018, commissioned by the MAXXI and on display in its collection since 2019.

Tirelli is a member of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, of which he was president in 2023–24, and of the Accademia dei Virtuosi del Pantheon.