Marco Casentini, b. 1962 in La Spezia, Italy is a contemporary painter. Drawing upon an abstract, post-minimalist aesthetic, Casentini's paintings express a response to landscape and architecture. Using super-saturated colors, his paintings reference the light of the Italian and Southern California coast. Influenced by his surroundings and drawing on Southern California themes of hard edge abstraction, the "finish fetish" minimalism, and geometric planes, Casentini's seemingly non-objective works are translations of emotions and environment.
In 1996, the artist traveled throughout the United States, an experience which would further impact the colors used in his work, inviting a new sense of light and earthy hues. "My paintings are inspired by urban space-by the geometry of its forms and its architecture," he has said. "Our lives are full of geometry. There are a variety of ways to work with these forms. You can use geometric shapes to create rhythms and tensions or quiet and relaxing spaces." Cantina is the recipient of the 2005 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and has had solo museum exhibitions at The Bakersfield Museum of Art, The Riverside Art Museum, CAMeC, Torrance Art Museum, and the Museum für Konkrete Kunst, among others.