Mark Acetelli

 Mark Acetelli, born in Detroit, is a multifaceted artist who traces his interest in art back to his mother’s passion for painting. Mark was brought up in an artistic household where he was encouraged to explore many forms of creative expression, including, music, painting, photography and poetry.  

  Mark is a self taught artist and has an immense appetite for consuming as much knowledge as possible. From learning about the great masters to the history of art helped him to find an intellectual footing for his own visual language. 

His studio is located at the historic Bendix Building in downtown Los Angeles. Mark’s works are inspired by the intensely personal introspective journey of life, from the ever changing complexities of love, loss, birth and transformation. 

The context of his work he describes as “Simple expressions of complex thoughts, created by capturing the physical mixed with the spiritual.” He seeks to evoke a feeling rather than a defined image. Referring to his work as “Absence and Presence” referring to how something or someone can be gone, but a presence remains.

  Mark’s application of paint is an extension of that thought process. Using traditional brushes along with palette knives, rags and even his hands, he continuously builds up and tear down the surface, adding and subtracting, stripping away layers to achieve greater clarity of emotion. He uses primarily oils and encaustics. Each layer adds to the narrative and depth. Sometimes a painting must go through many deaths, in order to be born again. “During this creative process, I lose my attachment to the end result, this allows me to create freely and openly as possible and to communicate where the conscious and the unconscious intertwine”. 

   Marks’ most recent works are his dialog with Rothko and the abstraction of land and seascapes. Using multiple thin layers of transparent pigments and blurring the surface give the reference of stopping time for a fraction of a second. Capturing the ephemeral encounters that pass unnoticed and that are fleeting. 

Mark's work has been exihibited across the US and internationally and is in many public and private collections around the world.