Painter and printmaker Marvin Saltzman was born in Chicago on June 16, 1931. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1954-1956) and the University of Southern California, from which he graduated with a BFA and MFA in 1959. He taught at Eastern Oregon College, USC, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He began exhibiting in 1959 with a group show at the Wadsworth Museum in Hartford, Connecticut and has since exhibited in numerous solo and group shows throughout the US and internationally. Most recently, his work was featured in a 2024 exhibition at the University of North Carolina Rex Heart and Vascular Hospital in Raleigh, NC. 

Satlzman's work in included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, WDC; the Library of Congress, WDC; the Greenville Museum of Art, NC; the Ackland Art Museum, NC; the National Library of Australia, and numerous corporate, federal, and educational institutions. He continues to live and work in North Carolina.

Awards and recognitions: 
1971-72: University of North Carolina (UNC), Research Grants
1979: UNC Pogue Fellowship
1991: UNC, Research Leave
1992: St. Andrews College, Sam Ragan Award
1996: UNC, Research Grant
1998: North Carolina Award in Fine Arts