Mark Veca creates paintings, drawings, and large-scale installations that portray surreal cartoons, psychedelic landscapes, and pop culture iconography while also being inspired by long-established decorative motifs. He is widely recognized for his all-encompassing installations that surround the viewer and incite a sense of awe. Revealing fantastical, humorous, aggressive, or sexual imagery with both frenzy and pattern-like precision, his works often recall a modernized type of toile painting. Veca was named Honoree of the fall 2008 Jennifer Howard Coleman Distinguished Lectureship and Residency at Otis College of Art and Design. In 2006, he was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Amongst his many honors, Veca has thrice received the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in painting and has carried out artist residencies for institutions such as the Bronx Museum, MacDowell, and Villa Montalvo.
At MacDowell in 2019, he made a series of new paintings for upcoming exhibitions at California State University, Northridge and The Lancaster Museum of Art and History. His installation "Passaggio di Pop" is on view indefinitely at The Crocker Art Museum as part of the 2018 John S. Knudsen Prize. Veca is currently at work on a major public art commission for a new LA Metro train station opening in 2023.
