Mario Avati (b.1921 Monaco, d.2009 Paris, France) was a French artist primarily known for his surrealist still-life engravings of common objects. Avati received arts education at the Higher National School of Fine Arts and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Avati would experiment with all different forms of printmaking from 1947-1957, later fully adopting his signature mezzotint engravings in 1957. His works are held within collections throughout Canada and internationally including the Louvre Museum (Paris, France), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), Tokyo Museum (Tokyo, Japan), Le Musée des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, Belgium), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON). Notably, Avati also had numerous works featured on stamps during France’s 'Stamp Day' in 1980.