Mario Zhekov (Marin Todorov Zhekov) was born on October 16, 1898 in Stara Zagora. In 1917, he enrolled at the State Art and Industrial School in Sofia. The following year he was mobilized and sent to the front. A few months later he was captured. It is said that a French officer was so impressed by his talent that instead of being sent to a camp, he was sent to study painting in France. In 1919, Mario Zhekov entered the Paris School of Painting. In 1921 he traveled to Turkey - he painted Bosphorus landscapes, which are the earliest convincing evidence of his talent. Even in them, the variety of plastic concepts inherent in all his work can be observed.

As a member of the Society of South Bulgarian Artists, since 1920, Mario Zhekov participated in many public exhibitions, arranged solo expositions in Sofia and other cities, but for many years his name was better known outside Bulgaria.
In the 1930s and early 1940s, Mario Zhekov reached the peak of his creative maturity. This is a time of non-stop travel - along the French coast, Balchik and Varna, Nessebar and Sozopol, the White Sea and Ohrid. In 1936 he received a prize at the international exhibition-competition in Leipzig. The year 1937, spent in Dubrovnik, was particularly productive for him. Mario Žekov's popularity and the raptures of the Croatian public led to his solo exhibitions in Prague, Budapest and Bucharest.
Mario Zhekov is known as one of the greatest Bulgarian mariners. He spent virtually his entire life traveling the seashores to paint en plein air. Zhekov's characteristic search for various effects of the light sliding on the water surface brings the author closer to the views of the impressionists. His work is also associated with influences from symbolism and expressionism.
Zhekov is also the author of landscapes from Tarnovo and Tryavna, Karlovo and Plovdiv, Stara Planina, the Rhodopes and Rila.
He died on August 3, 1955 in Sofia.