| Marco Almera began his artistic career in the Southern California Surf/Skate/Punk/Rock culture of the early 80's. As a teenager,
Almera was inspired by the do-it-yourself style of this culture, and created his own t-shirts and stylized graphics. His underground
art style has always gravitated to this world of surfing, music, cars, pinup girls and California culture, and he remains
a dedicated representative to this way of life.
Almera has spent the last 16 years working independently, creating t-shirts, album covers, rock music posters and commissioned paintings.
Almera's hand-pulled serigraphs can be found in poster shops, music stores, and art galleries throughout the world. Most recently,
he has enjoyed huge success with his art and serigraphs in Japan, Germany, Holland, England, Sweden, Australia and the continental
United States.
Since his gallery debut in 1999, Almera's momentum in the art world has continued and accelerated. His painted canvases and commissioned
pieces have been featured in West Coast solo and group shows at the Copro/Nason Gallery, the La Luz de Jesus Gallery, The Laguna Beach Art
Museum, the Track 16 Gallery, 111 Minna Gallery San Francisco, the Shooting Gallery San Francisco, the Huntington Beach Surf Museum, the
Huntington Beach Art Museum, the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, the Art Institute of California San Diego and the Roq La Rue Gallery Seattle.
Over the years, Almera has found much success and interest for his art in Europe. After years of traveling and showing his work,
primarily in Germany, Almera has held successful shows in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, London, and Amsterdam. He is now
inexclusively represented in Germany by Feinkunst Kruger Gallery Hamburg.
The past few years have seen a transition from the artist creating primarily rock posters and related work, to almost entirely fine art
and freestyle graphics. Besides his private commissioned work, the artist has been involved in a continuous succession of gallery
showings, ranging from the 111 Minna and Shooting Galleries in San Francisco to the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles. He has
also participated in numerous other group shows in various galleries and venues throughout the country.
Almera has participated in interviews by Happy Magazine, SD Music Matters and Surfing Magazines in the U.S. and Cal,
Warp and HTWI Magazines in Japan. Blond, Brett, Warshauer and Surfer Magazines in Germany have also featured interviews
and articles on the artist, as well as Big Cheese Magazine in London. The underground art magazine Juxtapoz has featured
Almera's artwork in previous issues, and now carries a serigraph of the artist's quite popular "Charger/Swinger's Lounge"
piece in every issue, with credits given to the artist. The "Art of Modern Rock" book published in 2004 featured a section,
"Taking it to the Streets", which includes the art and interview of the artist. This book has been received
unbelievably well internationally, and will stand the test over time as being the primary reference for the modern Rock Poster Art movement.
Almera's originals have been collected by a diverse range of celebrities and non-celebrities alike. James Hetfield of Metallica owns
an Almera black velvet painting, "Tiki de Oro", and Randy Hild, President of ROXY (Quiksilver) owns the "Surface" original.
Frank Kozik, the legendary rock poster pioneer, music industry heavyweight and toy designer has been trading art print-for-art print with
Marco since Almera's first Sublime print in 1997. Jonathan Dupree, head of the Art Department for Paul Frank Industries, has quite a few
pieces in his collection, and Matt Getz, Owner and CEO of Poster Pop Inc., owns a series of commissioned Almera originals.
Almera's art and prints have been used numerous times as set dressings for major motion pictures. In the "Basement Wrestling Scene",
from the Will Ferrell comedy classic "Old School", a serigraph of Marco's, "Silencer", can be seen in the background. Back to Back Films,
the production company for the Rodriguez/Tarantino movie, "Grind House", cleared the use of a few rock posters for set dressing as well.
The ABC series "WIFE SWAP" displayed an Almera lithograph, "Dirtbag Social", on the wall of one of the sets, which features the art
collection of one of the couples.
Currently, Almera is busy creating custom paintings, t-shirt artwork and ad layouts. A new and interesting direction the artist is headed
in is creating content and screenwriting for independent film and television. He has been working with a production company and has
considered going to film school to pursue his interest in creating films. This is the new direction for the artist: taking his
love for visual art to the next level and adding a story to it, for a new avenue of expression.
Mark Almera,
Artist + Graphic Designer |
