Torero
Mario Acevedo Torero was born in Lima Peru in 1947. He learned to paint and draw from his Father Guillermo Acevedo who was an accomplished artist living and working in Peru. When Mario was twelve, his family immigrated to the United States in search of art, freedom and opportunity. They landed in San Diego, CA and made the seaside city their home. From the very beginning, art and the artist’s life permeated through Mario’s upbringing. His Father quickly became a well known artist in San Diego. Mario married his high school sweetheart Sheila and began creating his own family. A child of the 60′s they lived for a time in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district and enjoyed the music, art and lifestyle of the era.
Mario returned with his family to San Diego and in the 70′s, with the protests, activism, and ensuing creation of the famous Chicano Park, he found his true calling as an “Artivist.” Mario’s murals in Chicano Park are among many known worldwide and are a major attraction of the area. Long before San Diego’s downtown area was the bustling center it now is, in 1976 Mario and his Father opened The Acevedo Art Gallery International on 8th and Broadway, Downtown San Diego’s first art gallery. By 1977 it became the first ever multicultural art center, known as the Community Arts Building. On its 4th floor, in 1978 Mario painted a 15X50ft iconic mural of the Eye’s of Picasso which immediately became a point of reference for many, and the icon of San Diego artists, establishing the Downtown’s Art District. Fans watched and noted as the “Eyes” were destroyed and repainted many times throughout the city. Mario and his second wife Rita opened and ran the very successful Acevedo Gallery in Mission Hills from 1984 to 1990. Mario was a member of the founding board of the San Diego Commission of Arts and Culture, in which he served from 1988 to 1993. For years (1999-2009) Mario’s sculptures of “Los Voladores” welcomed every visitor to the San Diego Airport.
Known as El Maestro, Mario believes in teaching youth about art and how art can create community. Mario spends countless hours with no monetary compensation with his “Kosmic School of Art” teaching young and old how to paint and what great gifts painting can bring. He gives college students tours of Chicano Park and has an ongoing exchange with the students of Bowling Green University in Ohio. He has made several pilgrimages back to Peru and has traveled to Paris, Japan, Prague, Barcelona and now China to share his art and vision. His latest project (2011)is a glass mosaic mural on the UCSD campus which holds a special place in Mario’s heart. The mural is a welcoming home to many students of color on a campus that, at one time, did not feel so welcoming. Working with artisans in China has also opened a new cultural exchange for Mario. There is no slowing down this “artivist” with so much talent and compassion. The next project he is involved in is the restoration of the beloved Murals in Chicano Park that he helped to create throughout the last forty year. Mario gives thanks to his beautiful family, his wonderful friends and of course to the art that surrounds him, spiritually protected by his goddess, Pachamama.
www.fuerzamundo.org
Mario returned with his family to San Diego and in the 70′s, with the protests, activism, and ensuing creation of the famous Chicano Park, he found his true calling as an “Artivist.” Mario’s murals in Chicano Park are among many known worldwide and are a major attraction of the area. Long before San Diego’s downtown area was the bustling center it now is, in 1976 Mario and his Father opened The Acevedo Art Gallery International on 8th and Broadway, Downtown San Diego’s first art gallery. By 1977 it became the first ever multicultural art center, known as the Community Arts Building. On its 4th floor, in 1978 Mario painted a 15X50ft iconic mural of the Eye’s of Picasso which immediately became a point of reference for many, and the icon of San Diego artists, establishing the Downtown’s Art District. Fans watched and noted as the “Eyes” were destroyed and repainted many times throughout the city. Mario and his second wife Rita opened and ran the very successful Acevedo Gallery in Mission Hills from 1984 to 1990. Mario was a member of the founding board of the San Diego Commission of Arts and Culture, in which he served from 1988 to 1993. For years (1999-2009) Mario’s sculptures of “Los Voladores” welcomed every visitor to the San Diego Airport.
Known as El Maestro, Mario believes in teaching youth about art and how art can create community. Mario spends countless hours with no monetary compensation with his “Kosmic School of Art” teaching young and old how to paint and what great gifts painting can bring. He gives college students tours of Chicano Park and has an ongoing exchange with the students of Bowling Green University in Ohio. He has made several pilgrimages back to Peru and has traveled to Paris, Japan, Prague, Barcelona and now China to share his art and vision. His latest project (2011)is a glass mosaic mural on the UCSD campus which holds a special place in Mario’s heart. The mural is a welcoming home to many students of color on a campus that, at one time, did not feel so welcoming. Working with artisans in China has also opened a new cultural exchange for Mario. There is no slowing down this “artivist” with so much talent and compassion. The next project he is involved in is the restoration of the beloved Murals in Chicano Park that he helped to create throughout the last forty year. Mario gives thanks to his beautiful family, his wonderful friends and of course to the art that surrounds him, spiritually protected by his goddess, Pachamama.
www.fuerzamundo.org
"Frida Icon"
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Chicano Legacy Mural - UCSD
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"the Border"
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