Mario deFerrante, a printmaker, muralist and teacher, was born in Naples, Italy on November 29, 1901.  He graduated for the Royal Institute of Belle Arti in Naples with a Master's Degree in art.  Immigrating to the US about 1922, he settled in Manhattan, NY.  During the Depression he was employed by the New York WPA as a painter.  He relied on his art training for auxiliary employment and painted murals for churches, apartment houses and private individuals.  DeFerrante was also employed by the Wa;t Disney Studios in New York.

DeFerrante relocated to California in 1936, settling in Hollywood.  He and a partner ventured into the restaurant business, opening Hell's Kitchen on Hollywood and Vine.  The partnership lasted only a short time after which he moved to Tujunga where he built his home and studio about 1942.  For many years he sustained himself solely on his paintings, murals, portraiture and screen prints.

He was an early member of the Western Serigraphy Institute of Los Angeles and his serigraphs found a national market through them.  Between 1970 and 1984 deFerrante was Professor of Art at Barnsdale College in Hollywood. lHe was included in group exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brigham Young University and the Bienale de Milan.  His work has been honored with many awards and is represented in the collections of the Library of Congress, Yale, Princeton and Brigham Young Universities and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Mario deFerrante died in Los Angeles in December of 1992.