Marko Acton Saarelainen

Works available

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Basic information

b. 1975, Espoo

Graffiti Artist, Graphic Designer

Residence: Helsinki

Contact information

Email: acton@hrc.fi

Artist’s Statement

I began painting graffiti in late 1989 - early 1990. I fell in love with its independency, the swift implementation and the anarchistic approach of the artform. The attitude of not giving a damn about the rules appealed to me strongly. But it still had very strict rules within the own field, ways how to do things and what is and is not acceptable when performing graffiti. A contradiction, which keeps the whole thing interesting enough to keep me still drawn to it, after all these years.

Even though it ain't that visible from my paintings, heavy music has always had an important role in my art. I find both inspiration as well as primal energy from it which I try to channel the best way I can on to my paintings. My first encounter with graffiti and heavy music took place in the mid-eighties.

The actual message of graffiti is rather simple: the moniker of it's painter, presented in well executed, ornamental way, using the established forms of the genre. The moniker is in most cases presented with letters or forms/characters looking like letters. This very independent form of street typography, letter design that's done with spraypaint (and these days other artistic methods as well) is still, to this date, the very core of my artistic working. Always starring the following five letters: A, C, T, O and N.

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Works from the artist

Name of the work: Acton – Chief Rebel Angel

Name of the work: Acton / Copenhagen – Helsinki – Outokumpu

Name of the work: ACTON / Revelation Revolution

Name of the work: Acton / Helvetica, metamorphosis pt. 1 – 3

Name of the work: Acton Act Acton (5000m2)

Name of the work: Entombed / Art goes Kapakka ’15

Bio

Marko Saarelainen (b. 1975) is a graffiti artist born in Espoo, now residing in Helsinki. He works and creates art under the moniker Acton, which has also been his middle name since 2019. He has used this very moniker since late 1989. During the 90's his art was very visible part of the scenery of his hometown Espoo. Together with two of his colleagues they released a book about these years in the fall of 2016, and an updated version in early 2021.

Between 2002 – 2010 graffiti remained in the background while he concentrated on graphic design, especially illustrating various publications for music industry. Since 2011 graffiti art slowly took more and more space from other work and since 2012 he's been working more or less as a full time artist, creating and promoting graffiti.

The main theme in the works of Saarelainen are letters, the very core of graffiti. In due time the political debate about the ownership of public space has stepped aside when he has been focusing in the actual letter design from the perspective of traditional graffiti art. Saarelainen is one of the few finnish graffiti artists who's works have been on display in private exhibitions in art galleries as well as group exhibitions in art museums. Since 2016 he's almost annually participated in the international Meeting of Styles -events around Europe. In 2017 Saarelainen was granted an grant from Arts Promotion Centre Finland which allowed him to paint works for "For the Love of Freedom" exhibition held the same year at Sinkka, art museum of Kerava. This was the first exhibition in finnish art museum that focused solely on graffiti.

Saarelainen has been a full member for artist association MUU since late 2014. He was accepted into Helsinki Artists' Association in 2020. He has applied to all artist associations as a graffiti artist and with graffiti art only. "The reason or the meaning behind my art is not to make people happy nor to gain general acceptance. I do not paint in order to please the viewer or to decorate our common environment. The act of graffiti painting is always a performance which negotiates between the target that's been painted and with the expectations that are put on it. The process of painting is usually boring and monotonic, but due to the size and nature on the paintings it still is dynamic, downright aggressively fast. The outcome of the process is a work formed of letters, which to common joe is very hard to approach, transmitting it's own, exclusionary message." explains Saarelainen about the motives behind his graffiti painting.