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MarzelestEstimate a Work

MARIO · ARTIST AND FOUNDER · CHICAGO

I build one-of-one wearable characters.

I’m Mario, the artist and founder of Marzelest. I work in Chicago with familiar clothes and unruly materials. Candy becomes color, sound and burden. Flowers consume the line of a jacket. Paint catches the light. Brooches turn tailoring into heraldry. I make, wear, remake and sometimes abandon these characters.

Mario seated before mirrored panels in Elevator After Midnight, wearing dark evening tailoring, silver details and the official Marzelest face covering.
Mario seated before mirrored panels in Elevator After Midnight, wearing dark evening tailoring, silver details and the official Marzelest face covering.
Direct-flash studio photograph of a black suit, candy wrappers, hot glue, and hand tools during the first construction.
Direct-flash studio photograph of a black suit, candy wrappers, hot glue, and hand tools during the first construction.

ORIGIN · NO AMAYUME · OCTOBER 31, 2025

I began with black formalwear and real candy.

I finished No Amayume on October 31, 2025. I loved the color first. Then I had to carry more than 25 pounds and listen to every wrapper rustle and click. The suit slowed my pace, changed my posture and made discomfort part of the picture.

I begin with the figure.

Before the surface takes over, I think about posture, pace, ceremony and what the body is willing to carry. The character must command stillness and remain persuasive in motion.

I let the material misbehave.

A Marzelest surface must alter the authority of the silhouette. Candy becomes mass and music. Flowers become volume. Paint becomes relief. Wire and light draw the figure into darkness. Decoration is only the beginning.

I watch how it enters a room.

I wear each character, turn in it and sit with its weight. From across the room it should read as one unmistakable figure. Up close, the hand should still be present in every placement, irregularity and change of rhythm.

MARZELEST · ARTIST-LED · CHICAGO

The hand stays visible.

I conceive each character, choose its materials, shape its surface and remain honest about what becomes real. Father Pop taught me that stopping can be as truthful as finishing. Collaborators may widen the frame, but the authorship and the facts remain clear.