Icarus, Phaethon, Minotaur, Lucifer Painting

951.733.3152 Acquistapace (Ah - kwees - ta - pah - chay) Italian “One who acquires peace” My drawings and paintings are filled with the iconography of everyday objects. I arrange these objects to question their established cultural associations and create a visual language of images charged with meaning and unexpected possibilities—their significance inherently inevitable." David Acquistapace is a contemporary painter who lives and works in Saint Louis, Missouri. A native of California, his intense colors and ephemeral lighting pay homage to the unique atmosphere and light of the California coast. An artist friend said to him upon moving to Saint Louis, “It will be interesting to see how the Midwest affects your palette." Three years later he wrote to his friend and said, “It has been quite interesting to see how my palette has affected the Midwest." Acquistapace’s fine art has been shown in both museums and regional venues, including the San Bernardino County Museum of Art in California, the Los Angeles Citywide exhibition in California, the Evansville Museum in Indiana, the Northern National exhibit at Nicole College in Wisconsin, where juror Philip Pearlstein awarded his painting “Minotaur” the Patricia Miller Friebert Award. His painting “California Dreaming” was featured in the California Dreaming exhibit at the Bayfront Gallery in Fort Mason, San Francisco. His work is in private collections in both the United States and Europe. In 2021 Acquistapace won first prize in the Webster Arts exhibit “Re-Entry," in Saint Louis, for his drawing “The Treachery of Love," and his painting “Mentre tu Dormivi” was included in the “Painting, 2011 - 2021” exhibition at the Site Brooklyn Gallery in New York, juried by curator and poet Peter Frank. Acquistapace began freelancing in the early 1980’s after earning his B.A. In Art. He worked in Los Angeles and Orange County as a designer, illustrator, and fine artist for more than a decade, accumulating many awards and commissions for his work. His client list included companies such as Disney, the U.S.A. Track and Field Team, Long Beach and Glendale Memorial Medical Centers, David C. Cook Publishing, Chariot Publishing, entertainer Donald O’Conner, and advertising agencies in both Los Angeles and Orange County. His illustrations have been published both nationally and internationally. He also showed in solo and group exhibits with his fine art, including the prestigious Laguna Beach Art Festival.