Early Life and Background
Marko Ristić was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and spent his youth on Long Island, New York. He is a first-generation American, raised in a Serbian immigrant family. His father is an architect who worked with wood and design, and his family cultivated an environment rich in visual and structural thinking. His sister, Kristina Ristić, is also a painter based in Belgrade, and his grandfather was a cinematographer in the Yugoslav People’s Army.
Growing up, Marko often felt the pull of dual identities — needing to navigate being “American” in school while also holding onto his Serbian cultural, religious, and familial heritage. He has described this tension as formative: in many ways, his artistic voice emerges from the overlap of those worlds rather than a rejection of either.
From Modeling to Painting — The Unconventional Shift
Marko’s entry into the art world was not through a formal art education but through discovery and self-driven practice. Between ages 19 and 27, he worked as a male model — a phase he describes as pragmatic but emotionally unfulfilling. At 27, he began to turn seriously toward painting, using it as a medium to ground himself, explore presence, and channel interior life. He has likened painting to journaling — each canvas is a page, a moment, something felt and internalized.
He attributes much of his artistic development to organic evolution rather than formal schooling: gradually experimenting, making mistakes, discarding, revising. His father also taught him foundational technical skills such as stretching canvases, making primers, and constructing frames.
Relatively soon after pivoting to painting, Marko gained gallery interest. A friend introduced him to Tyler Santangelo, proprietor of the ALLGORITHIM gallery, who offered him a solo show opportunity. That show, titled A Violent Display of Affection, would later become a hallmark in his early exhibition history.
Artistic Vision, Themes & Process
Marko’s paintings often dwell in the space between figuration and abstraction. He works in oil, with large canvases and bold, energetic brushwork. His forms sometimes dissolve or fragment; spatial depth is implied subtly, not overtly. He is attentive to color, gesture, and emotional resonance more than literal representation.
One constant in his creative logic is the concept of “chaos” as both subject and material. In his Flaunt interview, he refers to his paintings as “an attempt at replicating my own chaos.” The works often articulate tension between forces: love and destruction, presence and disintegration, inner turmoil and outward form.
He has also spoken about the discipline of working in the same space he lives, and how maintaining psychological boundaries is difficult but necessary. His studio loft in Manhattan has both order and messy interludes; some days pristine, others chaotic. He describes daily rituals — exercise, coffee, reading — that help usher him into the work.
Marko sees each painting as a “page” — sometimes he revisits them with surprise, sometimes no longer recognizes who made them. He has resisted rigid titles or fixed interpretations: art, for him, should resist final closure.
He also explicitly weaves his Serbian heritage into his aesthetic vocabulary. In interviews, he speaks of invoking Slavic endurance, Orthodox iconographic echo, and the emotive gravity of tradition. He sees America as a terrain of opportunity but also of disillusionment: his work pushes back on nostalgias and illusions, favoring what is.
Exhibition & Public Reception
One of Marko’s major public showcases was his solo exhibition at ALLGORITHIM in West Hollywood, A Violent Display of Affection, which drew notable attendees including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Jacob Elordi. The show centered on his large figurative paintings and emotional abstraction. The gallery press described how Marko re-stretched canvases multiple times during installation — a sign of his hands-on rigor.
That exhibition also served as a moment of affirmation: publicly encountering his internal worlds in gallery form. Since then, his work has been featured in art press, gallery circuits, and interior design publications, including Vogue Living in connection to his New York loft.
Persona, Identity, and Outlook
Marko projects a persona of introspection, intensity, and stubborn discipline. He is not one to court praise; he is more concerned with fidelity to his internal truth than broad acclaim. He does, however, embrace labels like “dynamic” or “energetic” when others apply them, though he resists comparisons to movements or other artists. He is skeptical of romanticizing the art world, seeing New York as a crucible that exposes illusion. He describes slowness in art, ruptures, doubt, and imperfection as part of what keeps his work alive.
Among his ambitions are to hold exhibitions in New York, Belgrade, and globally; to sustain a life fully supported by painting; and to maintain a disciplined, evolving practice. He also works with analog photography.