MAMarcio

I create conceptual art through very different processes. Part of my work is purely photographic: raw images, photographs edited with conventional tools like Photoshop, and images later processed with artificial intelligence. Another part involves AI generation — but even here there is no single path: some works start from my own photographs, used as visual references or departure points; others grow from sketches — mine or from a family member with a talent for drawing — which the AI transforms and amplifies; and others are born directly from carefully crafted prompts, where language becomes the brush. In every case, concept comes first.

My influences are too many to define myself by any one of them. Caravaggio, Goya, Beksiński, surrealism, Flemish baroque... but also cinema, literature, and everything around me. I refuse to put a label on what I do, because almost any form of art I encounter leaves some mark on me, and confining myself to a category feels like a self-imposed limitation. What I can say is that a significant part of my work is rooted in the dystopian — in my reading of contemporary society and the pressures bearing down on it. I have my own political sensibility, though I don't think this is the right space to lay it out in full. I will say that I feel deeply frustrated and saddened by the direction of global political leadership and by the growing concentration of power in the hands of a few. That sadness finds its way into many of my images.

On the role of AI in art, I hold no absolute position — but I do hold a conviction: I believe in the human capacity to adapt and overcome. When photography appeared, it was dismissed as the death of painting. Today no one questions its artistic legitimacy. History repeats itself. Purism is an understandable stance, but it sits uneasily with art's long habit of absorbing and transforming the tools of its time. I believe AI will serve many artists in ways we can't yet fully imagine; others will reject it, others will feel overtaken by times moving faster than they can follow. The world is what it is because of the multiplicity of perspectives — and this will be no different.

There was always a strong artistic presence in my family. My father brought together several disciplines in one person: painting, sculpture, photography, and literature. Growing up alongside him, watching the way he inhabited the artistic world, was a quiet and lasting influence that I still recognize in the way I look at things today.

AI is my tool, not my author.

Thank you for every favourite, comment, and badge. Your support means a great deal, even when I can't reply to everyone personally.

© MAMarcio – All rights reserved. This work is protected by copyright. Any use, reproduction, or modification without prior written authorization is strictly prohibited.