View every marine artwork by Azzurro ever on ArtStation

 AZZURRO presented a free exhibition of paintings and illustrations featuring iconic marine species of the Great Southern Reef at the Marine Discovery Centre in Henley Beach.

"70% of Australia’s population live within 50km from Australia’s southern reef, yet many would have no idea that the profoundly diverse creatures splashing in these shallows make the ones at the Great Barrier Reef look like toys out of a happy meal. The street artist AZZURRO presents a series of paintings and illustrations featuring marine species of the Great Southern Reef; some are near-threatened and at risk of devastation… or already possibly extinct. Azzy spends half of his time on top of a ladder painting the sides of buildings for corporate businesses, and the government. He spends the other half of his time beneath the surface of the sparkling waters of Brighton, Seacliff and Port Noarlunga, drawing inspiration from the abundance of unique and enigmatic marine life found there. While you‘re at the Marine Discovery Centre checking out Azzy’s freshly unveiled marine artworks, get up close to live eels, seahorses and Gerald the porcupine fish, hold specimens in jars like the famed Blue Ringed Octopus and Port Jackson Shark, play in digital reefs on huge touchscreens and swim with sea lions in virtual reality - just some of the attractions on offer at this awesome centre" 

Azzurro's second marine solo exhibition, also at the Marine Discovery Centre, ventured much further out from the South Australian shallows to explore marine life in the depths beyond the continental shelf. 

For the first time, he presented an artist talk to the audience in attendane, who he challenged to select the one and only 'made up' species from a wall of many unbelievable deep sea creatures. Amazingly, nearly everyone guessed wrong, with some attendees even claiming that none of the marine species presented were real. This demonstrates the sheer alien nature of life waiting to be discovered at the bottom of the sea, that is so abstracted from anything on dry land it's almost hard to believe it exists!

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Azzurro has been illustrating for businesses and painting murals for 10 years. When COVID hit in 2020, Azzurro used the downtime as a chance to get up to the cuttlefish at Stony Point.
“I'd been exploring the breeding aggregation for 10 minutes too long, in freezing stormy waters at Stony Point near Whyalla.
“This experience began an obsession with snorkelling in South Australia that's forced me into the water nearly every summer day since then.“

Gradually, Azzurro’s art has become very focused on local marine life.
“It seemed like it was bound to happen, but has taken a while to properly gather its patterns, shapes and palettes. Now I feel that I am finally at a point where I can imagine and realise my own underwater scenes and imagery using all my time spent floating on the waters surface with a snorkel.”

Azzurro’s favourite thing about the Great Southern Reef is how alien the life is compared to the rest of the world.
“So much of the reef life here looks so unrecognisably foreign to anything else on the planet that it's almost hard to even imagine how they came to be an evolutionary offshoot of any common ancestor.”

As a child Azzurro was exposed to marine species like the Leafy as a part of being in an eco primary school (Belair) heavily centered around the environment. 
“It was core in forming the understanding that the ecosystems here are profoundly special beyond the norm and need all hands on deck to protect.”
“It concerns me that I've painted the Leafy Seadragon and have had children as old as 8 unable to recognise what it is. I'm carrying that with me in my mission to document local reef life through my marine art.”

Azzurro hopes to provoke solutions and ideas just like they were provoked in him as a child 
“I want to build on the broader mission of promoting the Great Southern Reef to the forefronts of the minds that live on dry land around it.”