FACT SHEET

Mark G. Picascio, abstract painter and photographer, was born in Los Angeles, California on September 12th, 1961. Raised in Agoura Hills, near Malibu Beach, he studied painting at the College of the Canyons in Valencia, California while also majoring in Advertising Design and Illustration Graphics at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, L.A.

When he was 12 years old, Picascio began painting representational illustrative pieces of art on paper in water color. These paintings combined graphic shapes with organic forms in collage configurations. He then moved on to architectural illustration in water color and pen and ink. With precise water color techniques and skills, he worked for many of Southern California's premiere architectural design firms as a designer and presentation artist.

While working in architecture and design, including production design for commercials in movie studios in Southern California, Picascio was able to have his first art exhibitions from 1991 to 1999. Following his emergence into the art community, the artist was faced with a life threatening car accident resulting in his retirement from his architectural career. It was at this point that Mark G. Picascio shifted focus on his paintings from water color on paper to acrylic on canvas.

In 2001, the tragedy of 9/11 brought him to New York to visit friends who were terribly affected by 9/11 tragedy. One year later, he returned for his first exhibition in New York which revealed his new paintings entitled "Elevation Lines" in February 2003. While in New York, he was introduced to a New York structural engineer who was working on the 9/11 Recovery Projects assisting museums with the remembrance efforts for the World Trade Center. With the help of this engineer, Picascio was able to photograph the ruins of salvaged steel beams of the World Trade Center.

September 2003 brought another New York exhibition to Picascio's schedule. Based on his experiences of what he saw and emotions from the intense impressions left on him in February of that year, Picascio exhibited the photographs and paintings. The 2003 exhibition was titled "September 11th Memorial Exhibition" at the Ward-Nasse Gallery in Soho New York, presented by Watson & Spierman Fine Art, New York.

Mark G. Picascio has continued to exhibit in New York since his first visit in 2001 and has many collectors from New York to California, including prominent architects and interior designers. He currently resides in Southern California and calls Manhattan his second home.
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ARTIST STATEMENT

In the world of “the modern” contemporary abstract artist Mark G. Picascio creates abstract paintings that are luminous hues of earth and sky complementing the seeming weightlessness of hidden colorful free forms and geometric angles as they come alive, entangled together in a unique balancing act of one element cantilevering another in a song of nature and architecture. Highly influenced by modern architecture, His paintings are a view of abstract images, a segment of time captured, a glimpse, a shimmering fragment of a moment in his mind that creates mental collages from the space around him, later to become his art on canvas.

"There is a spirit and rhythm in every heartbeat, every life force in each of us, that transcends the human condition in this earthly realm".

In this statement, the artist wants to have its meaning be conveyed on canvas by expressions of sincere images extracted from his heart and soul, implemented in paint, as a graphic language that communicates the beginning of something new.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Los Angeles California, 1961. The artist was inspired by the surrounding, hills, and mountains as well as the oceans of Malibu, California where he grew up in the late 1960’s and 70’s. Self taught, by age twelve the artist was drawing and painting portraits of people and rendering architecture in watercolors.

In Junior High his biggest influence into the art world was his art teacher Roberta Lannes-Sealey, who taught him a great color sense and balance of color and composition in painting. She also helped him develop his artist signature at a young age.

A Way Through 29" x 41"	Yellow Submarine 29" x 41"	China Seas 29" x 41"

After graduating high school in 1980, his studies included, fine art, and art history at College of the Canyons, Valencia, California. In 1982 – 1984 he majored in advertising and graphic design, with additional courses in illustration, photography, display merchandising, and architectural design at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Los Angeles, California. 1984 – 2001 The artist played a key roll for many of southern California’s premiere architect and design firms as a presentation artist and designer encompassing all of his skills in the visual arts. The artist also worked as a production designer implementing set design with architectural renderings and still photography for product commercials at studios in L.A. California and Paris, France.

The artist’s work is shown and sold in galleries and design centers in California and New York. Early on the artist was greatly influenced by the shapes and forms of Frank Stella’s work in the early 1970’s and the works of artists Mark Rothko, Paul Klee, Caldecott, Kandinsky and Pierrre Soulages – all abstract expressionist and post-modern artists.
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