Mario Mazzorana

This coloured pencil work on paper, titled Revolution, was a gift from Mario Mazzorana.

I met Mario in Sydney in the late ‘80s early ‘90s. I think it was through theatre, he may have been doing some set design, possibly for Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. I don’t recall exactly why he gave me the painting now, we must have worked on something together at the time. I remember him being a lovely person but we didn’t keep in touch over the years and I hear, sadly, that he has passed away. He is noted in a 2015 Wellington newspaper article as “an artist who had to put down his paint brush because of his lung condition. He said singing had slowly brought him back to life”. The text on that page is a transcript of an audio recording also attached there.

His family traveled to New Zealand on the ship Zuiderkruis and Mario lived and studied in New Zealand for some time too. He work across multiple art mediums including film, performance, set design, sculpture, drawing and painting.

His Facebook page lives on with just a few images from days past and was last updated in 2016. 

There is a reference to him as Designer for a play called Is That You Nancy, performed at Belvoir St Theatre in 1991.

He also appeared in a 1986 short art film by Richard von Sturmer, Derek Ward, and Charlotte Wrightson, titled The Search for Otto, and in 1996 another film by Christina Andrea titled Excursion to the Bridge of Friendship.