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.
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 works are in many private and corporate collections
throughout the world including, US, Europe, Dubai, Japan, and
South America.
