Biography

Maurizio Quarello was born in 1974 in Turin. He studied graphic design, architecture and illustration in his native town and, on completing his studies he specialized and began working as illustrator in 2004, the crucial year of the Prix des Mediateurs Figures Futur at Salon du Livre de Montreuil and other three prizes gained at national illustration contests.

His first picture book, entitled "Babau cerca casa" came out in 2005 by Orecchio Acerbo and was awarded in Italy with Primo Voto as the best picture book of the year. Since then he has published about 40 books, in 21 countries of 5 continents, with companies such as Orecchio Acerbo (I), Sarbacane (F), Rouergue (F), Milan (F), Sterling Publishing (USA), Grupo SM (E), Barbara Fiore (E), Kumon (J) and Gerstenberg (D).

His books have received numerous awards in Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and in Germany.

In 2012 he was assigned with the Premio Andersen Award as best italian illustrator, received Llibreter award in Spain and Libbylit in Belgium, in 2013 with the following awards: Prix Littéraire des Ecoliers, XI Prix Je lis J'elis, XV Premio Nazionale un Libro per l'Ambiente and Prix 2013 du Mouvement pour les Villages d'Enfants, in 2014 with the IBBY Silverstar in Sweden, Premio Orbil and Premio Fondazione Cassa di Cento in Italy, in 2015 with the Premio Laura Orvieto, 1st prize in Italy.
He has shown his work at solo exhibits at Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea CGAC of Santiago de Compostela and at Museo Luzzati of Genova, at gallery Tricromia of Rome, in Bologna and Venezia, at the gallery La Fiancée du pirate of Toulon and in other French cities like Toulouse, Pantin, Cognac, Aubervilliers, Saint-Priest, Marcinelle in Belgium. He has taken part in numerous group exhibits (in over 15 countries), among them he likes to mention Mostra degli Illustratori at the Children's Book Fair of Bologna (Italy) in the years 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, Le Immagini della Fantasia of Sàrmede (Italy) in the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014, Im Reich der Phantasie (Germany) in 2010, La vie de château at Salon du Livre de Montreuil (France) in 2010 and Illustrarte (Portugal) in 2007.

His illustrations were selected for the Bratislava Illustration Biennale BIB of Bratislava in the years 2007, 2013 and 2015.

He worked for clients like Lufthansa, Wall Street Journal and Bilan.

From 2007, he run illustration courses and workshops for children and adults and, in 2011 he began working as illustration teacher at Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata.

He lives in Treia near Macerata (Italy).