Ottavio-Otto Boron was born in the former Italian city of Fiume in 1935. He arrived in Melbourne late 1959.

With a strong tendency for drawing since a very young age, he tackled his first oil painting at the age of 15. In 1962 he joined the National Gallery of Victoria life drawing classes under Ian Armstrong and Mark Clark, the schoolmaster at that time was the late John Brack.

In 1967 Otto was employed by Channel 9 Melbourne as a scenic artist, and in 1970 he was offered employment at Channel 2 at Ripponlea, also as a scenic artist. In the 18 years of scenic art work Otto gained enormous experience in working on large-scale backdrops and also a wide spectrum of techniques in painting through imitating old and modern masters, but his approach to art is very much self-taught.

Otto has received awards and commendations from artists and art critics such as: Mr. Alan McCulloch, Mr. Clifton Pugh, Sir William Dargie, Mr. Phillip Bacon, Professor Bernard Smith, The Hon. A. A. Staley, Mr. Raymond Francis, Mr. Geoff Makin, Mr. CPA Hos, Dr. Jack Hibberd and Dr. Brian Kennedy.

Solo and Group exhibitions of Otto's work have been held at numerous galleries throughout Victoria each year since 1973. Exhibitions of note have also been held in Sydney, Queensland, London and Toronto, Canada.

Otto has received the following awards for his art work:

• The Omega Contemporary Award
• The Norman Kaye Memorial Medallion V.A.S. 2x Artist of the Year Award V.A.S. 1998, 2005
• The Stanthorpe Regional Gallery Acquisitive Award Selected 'Salon des Refuses'(Alternative Archibald Prize) 2005
• Selected 'Salon des Refuses'(Alternative Archibald Prize) 2006

He is currently represented at:

• Stanthorpe Regional Gallery, Qld
• Shire of Diamond Valley, Greensborough Vic
• Port Phillip Contemporary Visual Art Collection
• Omega Contemporary Collection

For more on Ottavio Boron see www.ooboron.acl.au