MARC PAKBAZ is a Painter + Architectural Designer (M.Arch) who deals paintings from EXP/MP Living Room Gallery in North Miami Beach (est. 2015)

Cheers, Come On In

01. For New Guests: I Want to Schedule a Visit to EXP/MP Living Room Gallery. As a first step: if we haven’t met before, please include in your intro message [this is my name, where I live, what I do with links if applicable]. Then we’ll set up a video call to find a good time to visit. I meet gallery guests in Bal Harbour for a short beach walk to take in the lovely atmospherics before going to my place for appetizers, drinks, music and to view the paintings.

02. Read: 2024 WHAT I REALIZED to gain insight into where I’ve been, what I’ve done and what forms the composite of my lived EXP so far.

03. Immerse: 2024 PAINTINGS + WRITINGS, 2014-2023 PAINTINGS + WRITINGS. If you devoted a decade of your life and let go, deep diving literature, poetry, philosophy, social psychology, photography, art & sculpture on an intellectual level and as an applied pursuit (making/doing), what would you come up with? Take a look around, this is what I came up with. It’s less than 5% of my work because I know no one is going to go through it all so you have to massively distill it.

04. Always support locals: I’m a big believer in spreading joy and supporting locals as much as possible. We’re lucky to have access to our beaches, that’s our shared jewel. I make an effort to buy IPA’s from my local breweries even though my favorites are based in San Diego and available at Total Wine. I regularly visit Farmer’s Markets even though Publix and WF are conveniently located less than 2-3 miles from me. Attending local museums, gallery openings and supporting Miami-based artists is likewise good karma!

05. Social media: I’m not on any social media as I put all my effort in developing in-person relationships. Why? Low engagement devalues your work, forces you into playing games, I have no interest or appetite for that. Buying rounds of drinks at a pool bar is more enjoyable and has a better yield than boosting posts on Instagram. I love YouTube on my TV but I’ve completely dropped out of any mobile phone based social media — don’t miss it!

06. Getting personal: I started on the A-track, working at a top architecture & interiors firm in downtown San Diego but got laid off during the financial crisis in 2009 despite surviving the first two rounds of cuts. My life then spiraled into a brutal, uphill struggle for many years and I made it worse because I felt the life I deserved was taken from me, so I began to want to hit rock bottom as that Joy Division line explains: I watched it slip away. I finally found inner peace — emptiness — re-invented myself from zero with painting starting in 2014. It’s inexplicable why painting is such an intimate and deeply personal endeavor. When I say I’m a painter to someone I meet, to myself that doesn’t mean that painting is all I do. What it means is I’ve chosen to live an intellectual life; I can spend days/weeks reading poetry and writing in my journal — that permanently affects you. Ultimately, my work is what I see when I step into silence.