Artist Mark Rutkowski has been painting images of the Art Deco District of Miami Beach for over 30 years. A landmark retrospective of this work "The South Beach Paintings 1984-1994" was held at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale. Then Director Dr. Kenworth Moffett characterized Rutkowski as "An extraordinarily refined painter".
Although he continues to be known for his watercolors Rutkowski has produced a large body of portraiture, a series of large oil seascapes and a unique collections he titles assemblages all of which have grown their own enthusiastic collectors.
Born in Ohio in 1959, he attended the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit receiving his MA in 1981.
Already a successful professional fine artist, painting a series of photorealist scenes of rural gas stations he did his first photo survey of the Art Deco District in 1982.
He established a permanent studio on the Miami Beach in 1992. In 1998, he became Artist in Residence at Blue Moon Gallery in Ubud, Bali. Since then, Ubud 'The biggest artist colony in the world' has become his second home. He also maintains a studio in the countryside north of Paris, where he pioneered the use of the Camille Pissarro atelier as a working studio for contemporary artists.
The first portfolio of his work South Beach Two Decades of Art Deco District Paintings was published by Schiffer in 2006. Mark Rutkowski is also the author of several books, an anthology of Poetry 2000-2010 and his first novel In a Butterfly's Dream published in 2013.
He lives on Miami Beach and is currently working on his second novel.
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