A complete self-taught painter, during his youth he worked as a graphic designer at an architectural studio, where he discovered his talent. So, he began to express spontaneously in pictorial art through a first figurative phase (1960-1975) followed by a surrealistic parenthesis (1976-1990). Then, he  experienced a mixture between his two early styles; the result was a production that deserved attention on many Italian and European art critics. His works have been presented in solo and collective exhibitions, in Italy (Cesena, Cosenza, Florence, Forlì, Milan, Piacenza, Portovenere, Rimini, Rome, Sirmione, Turin), France (Cannes, Montecarlo, Nice), Spain (Tenerife, Lanzarote, Playa de Las Americas), United States (Atlanta, Bryan, Dalton State, Houston, Rome, Winthrop), Denmark (Copenhagen), New Zeland (Noumea), Japan (Tokyo) and South Africa (Worcester).

As a musician, he was an exponent of Ester D’Átena Scopelliti’s piano school, a direct pupil of the Italian composer and pianist Alfonso Rendano. Graduated in piano at the Music Conservatory of Naples, Mario Russo has been appointed music consultant (for Calabrian regional center) at RAI, Italian Radio and Television, as well as piano teacher at the Conservatory of Music of his hometown from 1978 to 1998. A respected piano professor and composer, he wrote pieces for piano solo and chamber music, as well as a very appreciated text of ear training in singing. Besides, he was Secretary of the National Piano Competition Premio Rendano from its foundation (1975) to the date of its displacement to Rome; Founder and Artistic Director, in collaboration with Silvano Sardi, of the Festival Settimane Musicali di Campo Tures (Bozen, Italy) from 1989 to 1993; artistic collaborator at the Festival Internacional de Zumaya (Spain) in 1985 and 1986. During his musical career, Mario Russo has trained hundreds of pianists and teachers, many of whom have held roles of great responsibility at Italian Music Conservatories and Theatres (such as Teatro Sociale di Como and Teatro San Carlo, in Naples). Many of his students have been admitted to prestigious international piano schools, such as the Conservatoire Superieure de Genève (Switzerland) and the Piano Academy Incontri col Maestro in Imola (Italy). Some of them, then, became pupils of great pianists, such as Maria Tipo, Sergio Fiorentino, Edith Murano, Daniel Rivera, Franco Scala, Jörg Demus and Boris Petrushansky.