Marco Perego, born in 1979 in Brescia (Italy), lives and works in New York. He is known for his controversial and iconoclastic paintings. A graduate of IULM University (Milan), Perego was a professional soccer player. At the age of 21, he suffered a leg injury and went to Brazil for a year to try to recuperate and continue playing. There, he joined a samba academy. But in the fall of 2002, Perego gave up soccer and moved to New York to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.

“I was living in Spanish Harlem without money and I was living on 104 Street,” he said in one of his interviews. In New York, he scraped to make rent: “I busboy, waiter, teach soccer.”

His big break came through one of the many connections he made in New York. He convinced a friend’s sister, Gilda Moratti, who hails from the fabled Moratti family and works at Sotheby’s, to come and see his art.

Ms. Moratti bought one of his painting as she apparently saw stars in him. Another celebrity who later bought one of his paintings is Armani.

In 2005, the Galleria Cardi in Milan offered him a show, and this time among the buyers were Dolce & Gabbana.

His show at the Ingrao Gallery on East 64th Street represented a substantial haul even for a former professional soccer player. It featured 10 paintings and 15 sculptures. Notably, the buyers’ list included prominent names, like the Moratti family, Dolce & Gabanna, Hard Rock Café heir Harry Morton and Fiat heir Lapo Elkan, a close friend of the artist. The crowd resembled an overbooked fashion event.

His influences include a famous Italian artist Caravaggio, a French artist Marcel Duchamp, French philosopher Pascal and the writer William S. Burroughs.