About

Born in 1970 in the mining city of Oruro, located in the mid-western part of Bolivia. He is the youngest of six brothers. From an early age, he had a passion for drawing, motivated by his uncle Enrique Suaznabar, a professional photographer who lived in the same city. Focusing solely on drawings as the main motor of his creations, he has shown a great interest in the colour form an early age and began exploring watercolors, pastels, and colored pencils. His focus was painting insects, animals, houses and portraits on paper and cardboards. Marcelo developed a great amount of his work, as Oruro possesses mystical energy in its surroundings and has a strong folkloric tradition; its carnival was declared by UNESCO as Oral and Intangible Patrimony of Humanity.

At age 16 Marcelo began exhibiting his work as part of group shows, accomplished without formal art training. Driven by a passion for drawing and the encouragement of his uncle, at an early age he explored his interest in colour through the use of watercolours, pastels, and coloured pencil. Later he completed a course in art at the Catholic University in Santiago, Chile in 1992.

His early works were heavily focused on religious themes. This first phase in his career lasted more than five years, influenced by colonial baroque artists such as Bolivian Master of Calamarca, Melchor Perez de Holguin, Italian artist Bitti among others. Then, he discovered the force and the language of colour. This led to a second phase which he calls the "Apocalypse" phase and subsequently the "Altiplano Magico" phase. His influence came mainly from Bruegel, Bosch, Carrington, Dali, Kahlo and Remedios Varo to name a few. For the past ten years, Marcelo has been engaged in the exploration of a more subtle symbolic language. The repetition of the Bolivian altiplano landscape is evident in his work. The landscape of his childhood and the memory of the scenery follows him – it is magical with great power and energy. The images in Marcelo’s paintings are whimsical, complex, absurd and surreal. These images appear to him randomly and he sketches these to not lose the phantasm.