Mark T. Zeilman
Mark T. Zeilman is a visual artist and professional tattooer based in Albuquerque. Raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, he came up in that city's emerging arts scene of the early 2000s — a first solo show at The Funkhouse downtown, one of the first artists in the Las Vegas First Friday Art Walk, then Studio MTZ in renovated railroad-worker cottages and Gallery MTZC in the Commerce Street Studios.
He moved to Albuquerque in 2016. The paintings and drawings came first, and they drive his tattooing, not the other way around. More than twenty years behind the machine have sharpened his line work, composition, and sense of flow, but the vision starts in the studio. He works in graphite, charcoal, pastel, pen and ink, oil, acrylic, and digital media — on paper, canvas, and objects, including hand-painted guitars and pickguards.
His work draws on the lowbrow and visionary traditions of Robert Williams, Derek Hess, Glenn Barr, and Alex Grey. The colors are bright and the tone is dark. The palette comes from neon Vegas nights and the wide skies of the high desert.
See his work in person at Ranchito Galería, 848 S Camino del Pueblo, Bernalillo. Open Fri–Sat 10–6, Sun 11–4.
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