Art, experiments & life in Puerto Rico
ABOUT
I’m Mark Wieder, an artist based in Puerto Rico. I make paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, and things with light, lenses, cameras, code, and whatever else the idea seems to need.
I’m interested in perception: how we see ourselves, how we see the world, and how quickly both can change.
Animals keep finding their way into the work. Pelicans, fish, birds, roosters, iguanas, jellyfish. Sometimes they’re symbols. Sometimes they’re characters. Sometimes I just like them.
I returned to painting in 2023 for the first time since high school. After nearly twenty years away I opened the door. It felt as if my art teacher's wisdom from all those years ago flowed through me and into the brush.
My creativity has moved quickly since then: from 40 paintings and a solo show with my first year, to public murals, private commissions, interactive media, programmatic light sculptures, community projects, experiments with technology, and my second solo exhibition before 2026 has concluded.
I tend to begin with a vision. Literally something I see in the mind's eye during yoga, the shower, or a random second of nothingness, for example. I'll draw it and question what it could mean. Some will become paintings. Some are better honored through different mediums. That's why my work includes otherwise random oddities like a tie-dye pelican, a ten foot light sculpture, a mycelium man, to name a few.
While creating my work, I find it tends to circles themes of identity, belonging, transformation, and perception. However, I’m equally interested in the interplay of order and chaos. Regardless, the biggest reward comes when I complete a commission that someone will spend time with every day.
Before becoming an artist, I was a lawyer and entrepreneur. Those careers taught me to research, build, experiment, organize people around an idea, and figure things even when it's something completely new or unbelievable.
Follow the curiosity.
Painting 🎨 Public Art 🙃 Curious Experiments 🦅