Salvo, born Salvatore Mangione (*1947 Leonforte; †2015 Turin, Italy), was an Italian artist whose distinctive practice moved between Conceptual Art and figurative painting, combining an engagement with art history with a highly individual visual language. Emerging within the artistic environment of Turin in the late 1960s, he was initially associated with Arte Povera before developing an independent conceptual practice involving photography, text, and marble inscriptions.

His early works explored questions of identity, authorship, memory, and the relationship between language and representation. In the early 1970s, Salvo made a decisive turn towards painting, embracing a medium that many of his contemporaries had rejected. Drawing inspiration from Renaissance masters, metaphysical painting, and modernist traditions, he developed an unmistakable pictorial vocabulary characterised by luminous colours, simplified forms, and carefully constructed compositions.

His landscapes, architectural scenes, and imagined cityscapes frequently evoke a timeless Mediterranean atmosphere. Familiar motifs such as mountains, temples, trees, and buildings become vehicles for exploring light, colour, and the relationship between reality and imagination. Through subtle shifts in perspective and chromatic intensity, Salvo transformed recognisable subjects into poetic, often enigmatic images.

His work bridges conceptual rigour and painterly imagination, challenging conventional distinctions between tradition and innovation. Throughout his career, Salvo maintained a singular position within contemporary art, demonstrating the continuing possibilities of figurative painting.

Selected Collections: the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin.