Be Special Painting

Marco Acri (Naples, 1986) lives and works between Naples and Milan, Italy. After his studies in Furniture Design at Politecnico of Milano and in Architecture at Federico II University in Naples, Acri spent two years in Vienna working with BEHF Architects. In 2016, together with three colleagues and friends, he founded FADD Architects, an architecture studio based in Naples. Acri started painting at the age of 16 as a self-taught artist. Even though he didn’t pursue an education in arts, his professional background allowed him to develop his own artistic vision and research. His practical knowledge of color and form, shape and light, especially when placed in a context, allowed him to channel his multifaceted exploration of lived experience, memory, and perception through hyper-precise aesthetics. The reassuring modular repetition, the pattern grid, is a means through which Acri is able to explore different depths of meaning while offering the same option to the observer. Acri’s paintings are not just exquisite and pleasant to look at; there’s more to that for those who venture beyond the surface. They are a lightweight, gentle, and un-threatening political declaration that invites us to grasp nature's beauty, challenge dominant narratives in fairy tales, and capture small things or thoughts that make the ordinary extraordinary. Text by Valeria Bevilacqua