Salvo was an Italian Conceptual artist that transitioned from producing austere sculptures to painting richly colored depictions of the Italian countryside. The artist began painting in his characteristic style in the mid 1970s, after experimenting with conceptual and non-figurative painting.

Born Salvatore Mangione in 1947 in Leonforte, Italy, Salvo became associated with artists of the Arte Povera movement during the late 1960s; having met Alighiero Boetti (with whom he shared a studio), Mario Merz, Gilberto Zorio, and Guiseppe Penone, while living in Turin. Originally achieving recognition for his text-based works—which consisted of his name or a tombstone for himself—Salvo began painting in 1973. Characterized by simplified forms reminiscent of the early Modern avant-garde. These dream-like scenes like are reminiscent of the Italian Metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. In 1977, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany gave the artist his first retrospective. He died in Turin, Italy in 2015 at the age of 68.