A.B. Makk is a contemporary American landscape and seascape painter whose luminous depictions of the Hawaiian islands carry forward a rigorous European academic tradition handed down through his celebrated artist parents.
A.B. Makk (Americo Bartholomew Makk) was born in 1951 in São Paulo, Brazil, the son of the Hungarian-born muralist and portraitist Americo Makk and the painter Eva Makk. He began exhibiting at the age of four and grew up alongside his parents as they executed mural commissions across Brazil, including more than a year of travel in the Amazon. The family relocated to the United States in 1962, where he completed high school and additional art training in New York before settling in Hawaii in 1967. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Hawaii, with majors in psychology and languages, while continuing an extended apprenticeship under his parents.
His mature practice centers on Hawaiian land- and seascapes rendered with the disciplined draftsmanship and classical color sense passed down through the Makk studio tradition. Among his recognitions are the Distinguished Americans Award for Excellence in Scenic Painting, the New York Graphic Society Recognition for Impressionistic Painting, and the Arpad Academy Gold Medal.