Mark Guglielmo

Mark Guglielmo (born 1970) is an American contemporary artist, rapper, and record producer. His practice spans visual art, music, and writing, unified by a methodology drawn from hip-hop sampling, to examine the human psyche, identity, power, migration, and belonging. His work has been exhibited at the United Nations, the New York State Museum, and the Loveland Museum, among other institutions.

As Vesuveo — a play on his middle name, Vesuvio — he co-founded the underground hip-hop group The Anonymous, whose 1998 single "Green and Gold" featuring Eminem reached No. 9 on the U.S. Rap Radio Charts and No. 28 on the Gavin New Mainstream Rap chart.

With earnings from his paper route, Guglielmo purchased a Kodak Instamatic camera at age 12 and began taking photographs. The series was presented as a two-person exhibition with artist Toby Barnes at A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton (June 2013), supported by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council, and documented in a short film by Northampton Open Media.

Cubaneo (2015–2017)

His Cubaneo series developed across three research trips to Cuba — photographing in Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa, Havana, Viñales, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad de Cuba — producing 18 large-scale photo-collage portraits of people he met on his journey, with accompanying audio interviews he conducted in Spanish and field recordings capturing the sounds of street life. and von Auersperg Gallery, Deerfield Academy (2019). A photo-collage from the series, El Pintor Lincoln Camué | The Painter Lincoln Camué (2015, Santiago de Cuba, 50 × 94 inches), was licensed for the cover of Jeremy Wolfe's Sensation and Perception, Fifth Edition (Oxford University Press, 2017).

The body of work received substantial critical attention. Writing in Art New England, critic Olivia Kiers described the work as offering "an alternate vision for what an American photographer traveling to Cuba could achieve," noting that Guglielmo gave his Cuban subjects "a level of agency and complexity usually absent in American photography." In a separate review for Big Red & Shiny, Kiers described the photo-mosaics as approaching "analytic cubism," with "simultaneity" as a central theme and the compositions as "a choreographic achievement." Writing in the Greenfield Recorder, critic Trish Crapo observed that the photo-mosaics "exude an uncanny sense of movement — it's as if the individual images are stop-action video clips."

Coverage also appeared in Take Magazine, the Bay State Banner, the Valley Advocate, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette, among others. His process also reflects the influence of American figurative artist Whitfield Lovell and Sicilian artist Andrea Chisesi, whom Guglielmo met on his trip. While there, he photographed landscapes and cityscapes in Palermo, Ortigia, Siracusa, Scopello, Erice, and Trapani.

Thematically, the project addresses memory, vulnerability, migration, and the imprinted legacies of his ancestors on the land they inhabited. "I superimpose their portraits onto these photo-collages in ways that would make you feel like they're ghosts, almost like they're spirits," Guglielmo told The Reminder in 2022. "It's almost like bringing them home." Individual works — including The Portal (75 × 75 inches), Exodus: Harbinger of Things to Come (a 48 × 192-inch triptych), and The Wail (after Letizia Battaglia) — were exhibited as a solo show at the Vermont Center for Photography, Brattleboro, Vermont (May–June 2022), where the work was selected for the May 2022 "Best Photo Picks" by the photography review publication What Will You Remember?

Portraits of My People (2021–2025)

His subsequent series, Portraits of My People, consists of life-size painted portraits of his ancestors, inspired by family photographs and public domain archival images of Southern Italian immigrants newly arrived in the United States. The collection examines Italian-American identity, the historical construction of whiteness, and the politics of assimilation, while responding to the near-absence of Italian-American subjects in major museum collections. and the United Nations, New York (2025) — his first solo exhibition in New York City, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, Connecticut (2025); and Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts (2025). Rong Jiang, curator at the United Nations, said the exhibition was "very well received for its artistic values and uplifting inspirations." His work is held in the permanent collections of Emory Healthcare (Atlanta) and the City of Loveland (Colorado). The volume, praised by Spike Lee, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Noel Ignatiev, has become a standard text in Italian-American studies. The essay was subsequently translated into Italian and republished by Il Saggiatore as "In Prima Linea: L'Hip-Hop, La Vita e La Morte del Razzismo" in Gli Italiani Sono Bianchi? Come l'America ha costruito la razza (Milan, 2006).

Guglielmo's painting In Honor of Sally Hemings (2021) was licensed for inclusion in A History of Domestic Work and Worker Organizing, a digital archive co-directed by Jennifer Guglielmo with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. His brother Thomas A. Guglielmo, a historian at George Washington University who also contributed a piece to Are Italians White?, authored White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890–1945 (Oxford University Press, 2003).

Music career

Growing up during the golden age of hip-hop just a few miles north of its birthplace, Guglielmo's early musical influences include Run-DMC, Eric B. & Rakim, Kool G Rap, and Boogie Down Productions. In the late 1980s, after meeting as freshmen roommates at Haverford College, he and Andrew Zinn (Zinndeadly) — a producer from Cleveland, Ohio, who had grown up inspired by New Order and post-punk — began making music together, hosting a college radio show, and deejaying parties. In 1994, Guglielmo and Gray won the Close-Up Rap or Roll songwriting contest, whose finals were held at New York City's Grand Nightclub, with host Bill Bellamy in attendance — a result noted in Black Beat magazine.

Working out of a basement studio at 219 Race Street in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood, the group spent sixteen months writing and recording before self-releasing their debut Swells of Abstract (1995) on cassette. Rap Sheet'''s "Representing" column called Vertigo "purely refreshing, creative hip hop" and "classy." BAM magazine compared their album to Digable Planets, Jamiroquai, and Snoop Dogg. Through Gray's connection with West Coast producer Mumbles, the group swapped demos with Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5, setting the stage for a move to Los Angeles.

Moonshine and Weep No More (1996–1997)

In mid-1995, the group relocated to Venice, California and started performing anywhere that would have them. Their first show in Los Angeles that fall, at the Natural Fudge Company in Hollywood, drew a single audience member. Determined, they built a following playing hole-in-the-wall clubs, open mics, and pay-to-play talent shows, eventually headlining a standing-room-only set at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip a year later. Adopting the name Moonshine, they released their second full-length Weep No More (1996) on Nightglow Music / Arcane Records. Cash Box named it Pick of the Week, describing the album as "a bodacious break from hip hop convention" recorded with "a chamber orchestra performance-art influence." BRE Magazine called it "refreshing and invigorating," praising every cut as "innovative." Subculture magazine described it as "an independent gem." The album featured guest appearances from Cut Chemist, DJ Mark Luv, DJ Drez, Marti Nikko, and others. Following its release, Drez joined the group as their live DJ and close collaborator, adding scratches to their subsequent records.

The Anonymous and Green and Gold (1998–present)

In the fall of 1998, the group adopted their new and final moniker, The Anonymous, and released Green and Gold (Nightglow Music / GoodVibe Recordings — initially as a vinyl EP, then as a CD LP), featuring Eminem, Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples, Divine Styler, Medusa, Living Legends, The Grouch, Erule, and Awol One, among others. The Eminem collaboration came about when Guglielmo set up a makeshift booth on the Venice Beach boardwalk after quitting his restaurant job to market the group's music, where he encountered Eminem's manager, who suggested they work together the next time Eminem was in town. The handwritten Eminem lyric sheet — written on the back of Guglielmo's restaurant résumé — was sold as Lot 81 at Sotheby's Hip-Hop 50 auction in 2023. In 2013, the magazine named the collaboration one of eleven revealing moments from Eminem's early days. XXL reviewer Kim Osorio — later the magazine's Editor-in-Chief — wrote that the record "breaks down more barriers for the left coast's underground scene and introduces The Anonymous as a couple of its finest representatives," noting that Vesuveo's "Italian heritage and Venice residence allows him to scream on mainstream rappers: 'You be a mere facsimile / Thinking y'all from Italy / But I'm the goomba and I'm working hard at my craft.'" Muzik awarded it five stars, calling it "a beautifully produced (crisp, musical and melodic) EP" and noting that the two Dr. EZ's Cool Fantastic posse cuts featured "some of the cream of the left coast underground. Phenomenal."

"Cool Fantastic," a two-part sixteen-emcee recording, was the brainchild of DJ Drez, with Guglielmo rapping on both parts and producing, composing, recording, and mixing Part II. Released as the group's first single off the album, the song reached No. 1 on the HITS U.S. Underground Rap Charts on July 31, 1998. Label co-founder Matt Kahane, who scouted and signed The Anonymous, went on to become multiple Grammy-winning producer Jack Splash (Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé).

Beginning in 2006, all prior recordings were made available digitally under The Anonymous name through Survivor Soul Music — clarifying a source of longstanding fan confusion caused by the group's three successive name changes. Weep No More is scheduled for a forthcoming 30th Anniversary limited-edition double vinyl reissue on the same imprint.

Later career (2000–present)

Following a move back to New York City in 2001, Guglielmo adopted the alias Manifest and produced, co-wrote, and composed "Forever and a Day" for Mystic's Grammy-nominated debut Cuts for Luck and Scars for Freedom (GoodVibe / Interscope, 2001), an album that also includes production by Shock G, Chops, AmpLive, and A-Plus. The track originated when Kahane, who had signed Mystic, passed her an instrumental of Guglielmo's, which she selected and would become "Forever and a Day," recorded and mixed by Matt Lavella at Sound Image in Van Nuys, California. The record was re-released digitally by Universal Music Group in August 2011 to mark its 10th anniversary. The Source singled out the track as "the jewel of the collection" with "spine-tingling piano keys and thunderous drums."

Other production credits include "Ignite" and "Nice With It" on Northern State's All City (Columbia/Sony, 2004) — contributing two tracks alongside beats by Pete Rock, DJ Muggs, and Questlove of The Roots — and film scoring for Novocaine (Artisan Entertainment, 2001), MacArthur Park (Sundance Entertainment, 2001), No Strings Attached (Paramount Pictures, 2011), and 5 Sides of a Coin (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2003), the last of which was reviewed in the New York Times, crediting "original music by Manifest."

Since 2005, Guglielmo has placed music in television shows across multiple networks and countries, including Pimp My Ride, America's Next Top Model, Jersey Shore, Mob Wives, Entertainment Tonight, The Real World, Bad Girls Club, Beavis and Butt-Head, and Inside the Actors Studio, as well as NBC broadcasts of the 2006 Summer Olympics, the 2007 Wimbledon Preview Show, and ESPN and NBC coverage of the U.S. Open.

In 2011, he returned to his Vesuveo alias with the release of his solo debut Shine (Survivor Soul Music). Issued on his own independent imprint, it was mixed by Matt Lavella and mastered by Tatsuya Sato at Sterling Sound, New York. Guglielmo executive produced the album and produced three tracks — the title track, "Shine," "Facts O' Lyfe," and the lead single "Algiers Point," featuring Evelyn Harris of the Grammy-winning a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Zinndeadly produced two tracks, including "Help" and "Spark Nasty" featuring scratches by DJ Drez.

Guglielmo's music career has been documented in Italian cultural media; Simona Frasca profiled him in Il Manifesto in 2013 and included him in Italian Birds of Passage: The Diaspora of Neapolitan Musicians in New York (St. Martin's Press, 2014).

Grants, residencies, and public programs

Guglielmo has received grants from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts ValleyCreates / MASS MoCA Assets for Artists program (2021, 2022, 2023), the Puffin Foundation (2024), and Art Fluent (2025). and the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, Columbia, South Carolina (January–March 2027).

In 2024, following three years as a grantee, Guglielmo was appointed a paid Community Advisor for the ValleyCreates program at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, which has distributed nearly $4 million in grants to arts organizations and individual artists since 2018, presented in partnership with Assets for Artists. Working with foundation staff and fellow advisors, he co-designed the program's annual offerings, reviewed grant applications for arts organizations and individual artists, and helped plan and design community gatherings and outreach.

From 2014 to 2020, Guglielmo performed as a rapper and cultural collaborator in the PrisonVision Program, which he co-created with the Young@Heart Chorus, performing at correctional facilities and public venues in Western Massachusetts while facilitating collaborative music rehearsals between the incarcerated and the elderly. Two recordings from the program appeared on Young@Heart's 2020 live album Miss You. The initiative received significant funding from various foundations and attracted coverage from CNN's Champions for Change and HuffPost Japan'', among others. The program was revived in spring 2025.

Discography

As The Anonymous

Year Title Label Notes 1995 Swells of Abstract Self-released Cassette; as Vertigo 1996 Weep No More Nightglow Music / Arcane Records CD; as Moonshine 1998 Green and Gold Nightglow Music / GoodVibe Recordings Vinyl EP then CD LP; feat. Eminem; No. 9 U.S. Rap Radio 1999 Dedicated Nightglow Music / GoodVibe Recordings Vinyl EP 2026 Swells of Abstract (reissue) Survivor Soul Music / Gramofix Records Deluxe limited-edition double vinyl, 2LP 2026 Weep No More (reissue) Survivor Soul Music / Gramofix Records Forthcoming 30th Anniversary limited-edition double vinyl, 2LP

As Vesuveo

Year Title Label Notes 2000 Survivor Soul Instrumentals Vol. 1 Survivor Soul Music 2000 Survivor Soul Instrumentals Vol. 2 Survivor Soul Music 2011 Shine Survivor Soul Music Solo debut 2011 "Algiers Point" feat. Evelyn Harris Survivor Soul Music Single; music video released 2011 "Spark Nasty" feat. DJ Drez Survivor Soul Music Second single off Shine; music video released 2011 "I Just Wanna Hold U" Survivor Soul Music Third single off Shine; music video released 2024 Survivor Soul Instrumentals Vol. 3 Survivor Soul Music

Selected singles

Year Artist Title Label 1996 Moonshine feat. Cut Chemist "The Sad Sombrero Song" b/w "Backstreet Gods" Nightglow Music / Arcane Records 1996 Moonshine feat. DJ Mark Luv "Origin of Species" b/w "Duck Season" Nightglow Music / Arcane Records 1998 The Anonymous feat. DJ Drez, Rakaa, Divine Styler, Living Legends et al. "Dr. EZ's Cool Fantastic Parts I & II" Nightglow Music / GoodVibe Recordings 1998 The Anonymous feat. Eminem "Green and Gold" Nightglow Music / GoodVibe Recordings

Selected production credits

Year Artist Title Label Role 2001 Mystic "Forever and a Day," Cuts for Luck and Scars for Freedom GoodVibe / Interscope Producer, co-writer, composer 2001 Zaire Black & June22 feat. Vesuveo & Able "Initiation," Experiments with Truth Emmoworks Rapper, writer 2001 Turi feat. Manifest "S.O.S.," Salviamo il Salvabile Antibe Music Rapper, writer 2002 Esa feat. Manifest "Caliente," Tutti Gli Uomini d'el Presidente Vibra Records Rapper, writer, producer 2004 Northern State "Ignite," "Nice With It," All City Columbia / Sony Writer, producer (with Pete Rock, DJ Muggs, Questlove) 2012 Young@Heart Chorus Now Self-released Executive producer