BIOGRAPHY
Mark is an LA-based artist whose inspiration to paint came from Picasso, Hockney, Frankenthaler, and his Ukraine-born grandfather. With an art career spanning twenty-five years, he learned to work viscerally and developed a capacity for risk-taking. Mark is an avid traveler and prolific painter who takes hundreds of photos of a city’s streets and its centuries-old paint-chipped walls and brings it all home to decipher. Whether it’s a month in Morocco at an artist residency, a month in Lisbon, or a good sunrise in Los Angeles, Mark creates a dialogue of imagery, blurring the lines between abstract and realism. He blends oil paint, granite, and ground stone directly on the wooden canvas and then scrapes the elements away to reveal an image underneath. He has had exhibitions throughout the United States and sold them to collectors in Australia, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Mark has an adult child, Taylor, who he raised in California and Texas. He lives in Thousand Oaks, California, with his wife, Shellie, and their two dachshunds, Pablo and Penny Lane.
CV
Galeria Azur (April – May 2023)
Madrid, Spain
Real Art Gallery (January – March 2023)
Agoura, CA
Forever Dog Studios (2022)
Burbank, CA
“CoVig19”, Official Selection (Apr 2022)
Hollywood Comedy Short Film Festival
TCL Chinese Theater, Hollywood, CA
“A Bathroom on Drake”, Best Short Film (2020)
Big Apple Film Festival
School of Visual Arts Theater, NYC
Residents DC, Jan, 2020 to 2021
Featured Artist
Washington, DC
Artists on Santa Fe Gallery – February 2018
Featured Artist
Denver, Colorado
Alpine Fine Arts, 2017-2018
Featured Artist
Denver, Colorado
Convergence March 2017
Green Olive Arts – Tetouan, Morocco
Collaboration & Mixed Media, Ortiz-Smykia Gallery 2015
Palm Beach, Florida (Group Show)
The Hangar Gallery – Art Basel 2014
Miami, Florida (Group Show)
Jabo Gallery 2013
Palm Beach, Florida (Solo Show)
Illinois Currency Exchange Charitable Foundation 2013
Chicago, Illinois (Group Show)
Haley Henman Gallery 2007-2012
Dallas, Texas (Solo & Group Shows)
Fiorucci 2001
New York, New York (Solo Show)
Warehouse Gallery 1999-2000
Los Angeles, California (Solo & Group Show)
Santa Monica Fine Arts 1995-1996
Los Angeles, California (Group Shows)
Education:
Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
Masters in Counseling Psychology
Bachelors in Film and Television
STATEMENT
Mark Lesser is an avid traveler and prolific painter who takes hundreds of photos of a city’s streets and its centuries-old paint-chipped walls and brings it all home to decipher. Whether it’s a month in Morocco at an artist residency, a month in Lisbon, Seville, Spain, or a good sunrise in Los Angeles, Mark creates a dialogue of imagery, blurring the lines between abstract and realism. He blends oil paint, granite, and ground stone directly on the wooden canvas and then scrapes the elements away to reveal an image underneath.
