Richard Demarco OBE RSW HRSA is a Scottish artist, illustrator, gallery director and teacher known for his major contribution to contemporary art in Scotland and for fostering international cultural exchange.
Born into a Scottish-Italian family in the west end of Edinburgh, 1930, and raised in Portobello on the Firth of Forth, Demarco continued to live and work in the city. Demarco studied book illustration, typography, printmaking and mural painting at Edinburgh College of Art between 1949 and 1953. Demarco then trained as a teacher at Moray House Teacher Training College before completing National Service. In 1957, he became art master at Duns Scotus Academy in Edinburgh until 1967. During this period, he also began exhibiting his own drawings and watercolours, showing with the Society of Scottish Artists in 1961 and holding his first solo exhibition at the Douglas and Foulis Gallery in 1962.
In 1963 Demarco became a co-founder of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. Demarco later parted ways with the Traverse Theatre to establish the Richard Demarco Gallery, which became an central institution for innovative art and theatre. The gallery helped build cross-cultural connections, presenting international artists in Scotland and supporting links for Scottish artists across Europe.
Over his career, Demarco has organised several thousand exhibitions, performances, conferences and cultural events, mainly in Edinburgh, involving artists from at least sixty countries across Europe, the Americas, Australasia, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He was particularly active in promoting cultural exchange with central and eastern Europe.
Demarco’s international outlook was shaped by the Edinburgh International Festival, which he attended every year from its foundation in 1947. In recognition of his work promoting contemporary art, he received a Scottish Arts Council Award in 1975 and the Gold Award of the Polish People’s Republic in 1976. His own artistic practice includes performance art, installation art and painting, and his work has been exhibited in Britain, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Malta and the United States. Demarco was made an Honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 2001.
