Marco Almera

Life

Marco Almera's artistic career emerged from the Southern California surfing, skateboarding and rock 'n' roll subculture of the late '80s. As a Southern California native, the artist was inspired by the do-it-yourself style of this subculture, and began by creating his own graphics and fine art. The artist has many influences and references that show up in his work: the surfing and beach subculture, skateboarding, rock 'n' roll and underground music, the iconic "California Girl", hot rods, iconography and the timeless coastal lifestyle. Marco Almera has spent his career working independently creating t-shirt designs, album covers, rock music posters, commercial graphics and commissioned paintings. Over the years, he has enjoyed much success with his art and hand-printed serigraphs in Japan, Germany, England, The Netherlands and all over the United States.

Exhibitions and collections

The artist began showing his fine art in galleries in 1999, and has since participated in many solo and group shows, mostly on the West Coast. Galleries that have shown his work include The Copro Gallery and La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, The Laguna Beach Art Museum, the Track 16 Gallery Santa in Monica, 111 Minna Gallery and the Shooting Gallery in 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 Roq La Rue Gallery Seattle. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 the artist had a series of gallery and local art shows in Antwerp, London, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. The artist is planning on returning to Europe in 2012 to plan another series of shows in Hamburg and Berlin.

Media coverage

The artist has been interviewed and featured in many art and surfing magazines in the U.S., Europe and Japan; most notably Surfer Magazine, Skateboarding (Germany), and Juxtapoz Magazine. He has also been interviewed and featured in a few hardcover books. The "Art of Modern Rock" published in 2004 included both an interview and a series of Almera rock posters. The artist also had a few rock posters included in the book "Rockin' Down the Highway", by the same author, Paul Grushkin. "Kustom Graphics 2", following-up "Kustom Graphics" book published by Korero also features Marco Almera and showcases some of his newer work. Recently, the artist has been included in La Luz de Jesus Gallery's 25th Anniversary Group Show and accompanying hardcover book, as well as “Surf Graphics”, the newest hardcover released by Korero Books (U.K.).