Born in France 1962 to a Swedish mother and Franco-Italian father, Marcel Marongiu’s life has been a study in contrasts.

He was educated by Catholic nuns according to the strict rules of his father’s line, nobility that traces back to the year 1205. But once his parents divorced, when he was still a young boy, and Marongiu went back to Sweden with his mother, what was once repressive and rules-based cracked wide open. Marongiu’s mother had very different family values. So of course his first footstep onto the path of adulthood was a rather lame attempt at a square life studying economics. Bad idea. He switched to Stockholm’s prestigious fine art school Konsthogskolan before deciding even that was too much of a drag and dropping out. David Bowie, Kounellis, Motherwell, De Kooning and Visconti seemed enough as inspiration and guidelines.

There was too much fun to be had running around Stockholm’s outlandish 1980s nightlife. The next logical step after club culture was fashion. Pulling from his father’s aristocratic straight spine and his mother’s diehard eccentricity, Marongiu established an eponymous womenswear brand in 1993 that became an overnight success. Paris called. He was named by industry bible Womenswear Daily as one of the ten most influential designers in global fashion. Grace Jones, Julia Roberts and Madonna were clients. After a prosperous run into the early aughts, Marongiu closed his company to focus on interior design, only to rejoin fashion in 2008 as the creative director of the storied French couture house Guy Laroche. Lady Gaga became a fan. 

But Marongiu could never get painting out of his system. It haunted him. It gave him uniquely profound access to his own emotions, demons and dreams. 

Three years ago, Marongiu decided to dedicate his creative energy to painting, with a little tableware and interior design on the side. It may seem a strange decision in our digital age to switch over to something so eccentric, one of a kind and handmade, but the disembodiment of our current era was what made pursuing painting so important. 

“Painting is intuitive and subjective, the imprint of an active body committed to a creative act,” says Marongiu. “My abstract work stems from my obsession with mythology and archetype. My portraits come from a darker place, picking up on my family history as well as historical characters who have survived the insanity and violence of their times.”