Mario Picardo: Sketchbook

Mario Picardo: Sketchbook – Born in 1985, French artist Mario Picardo draws dutiful inspiration from his surroundings. The minutiae of city life, overlooked but nonetheless vibrant, are documented daily in photograph and sketch. iPhones and notepads filled. Imagination sparked. Picardo’s hand translating it all, eventually, in rich, child-like imagery.

Sketchbook finds Picardo at his zenith. The images carry his studied naivety — these ruminate on space, place and popular culture. Bright colors pop against bold, black outlines. Within, the artist’s layered response to his observation gives voice to elements of urbanity overlooked or under appreciated. And in so doing, Picardo defines a fresh, abstract language. His vernacular splays across the page, bleeding edge to edge, and bringing to life layers of life both lived and seen.

While Picardo’s paintings may push to recognize a larger-than-life quality of his subject, Sketchbook positions considerations of process intimately. In its pages, Picardo illuminates mind, memory and soul…the crashing elements of his work…in a snapshot. The book presents the artist in movement, shifting fluidly from city surveillance to germinating ideas.