Marco Tirelli was born in 1956 in Rome, where he actually lives and works. He begins to exhibit already in the second half of the Seventies. His first participation at the Biennale di Venezia is in 1982, in the section Aperto 82 with a personal room. The collective exhibitions in Italy and abroad are numerous in the Eighties, among others: the PAC in Milan and the XI Quadrennial in Rome in 1986; Dal ritorno all’ordine al richiamo alla pittura 1920-1987, a traveling exhibition hosted by the Kunsternes Hus in Oslo, the Anteniim Taideemusee in Helsinki, the Matildenhöhe in Darmstadt and finally the Kunsthalle in Bielefeld in 1987; at the GAM Bologna in 1988; Diptych, Aspects of Abstract and Figurative Art in Italy, traveling exhibition between the Modern Art Gallery of Istanbul, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ankara and the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv in 1989. The Nineties open with the exhibition at the American Academy in Rome, which puts into dialogue a series of his drawings with some Wall Drawings by Sol LeWitt, followed by the participation in the XLIV Biennale di Venezia with a personal room. Among the art exhibitions of this decade, noteworthy it’s the Sidney Biennial of 1990, the San Paolo Biennial of 1991, Prospect ’93 at the Kunsthalle in Frankfurt in 1993, the XII Rome Quadrennial of 1996. In 2001 he presented a site specific installation at the Fondazione Volume! in Rome, in which he engages painting in an environmental dimension. In 2002 the Institut Mathildenhöhe in Darmstad dedicates an important anthological exhibition entitled Das Universum der Geometrie, showed the following year at the Modern Art Gallery (GAM) in Bologna. In 2004 he exhibited in a collective show at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, in 2005 at MART in Rovereto and in 2006 in the group exhibition San Lorenzo in Villa Medici, home of the French Academy in Rome. Among the most recent exhibitions: Excelle. Around the silence, Gori Collection – Fattoria di Celle, Santomato (PT), 2009; Marco Tirelli, Museum of Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2010); Marco Tirelli, MACRO, Rome (2012); a personal room in the exhibition Vice Versa, Italian Pavilion, LV International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia (2013); Soltanto un quadro al massimo, the German Academy of Villa Massimo, Rome, together with Bernd and Hilla Becher (2013); Marco Tirelli, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome (2013); Osservatorio, Fondazione Pescheria – Centro Arti Visive, Pesaro (2014); Proportio, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2015). Between 2016 and 2017 he exhibited at the Fondazione Cerere in Rome, in France at the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain of Saint-Etienne Métropole and again in Italy in the Sala delle Pietre of the Palazzi Comunali of Todi. In 2018 it is often abroad, with solo exhibitions in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Antwerp. He realized the work Proteo, commissioned by the MAXXI Museum of Rome and exhibited in its collection since 2019. 

His works are part of the collections of some of the most important international museums among the others MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo – Rome; La Galleria Nazionale – Rome; MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea – Rome; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Farnesina Art Collection, Rome; European Parliament, Art Collection – Bruxelles; MART, Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto – Rovereto; Il Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci – Prato; Palazzo Fortuny – Venice; the Albertina Museum – Wien;  Mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig – Wien; Kahosiung Museum of Fine Arts – Taiwan.