Turkish artist Ali Acerol was born in Bursa in 1951 (or 1948 or 1949, depending on source). He grew up in Istanbul, then was educated at the Sorbonne, in Paris. Acerol said that his earliest memories were of taking walks with his father in Istanbul and noticing old brick walls. He continued his fine arts education in 1975 at CalArts in Southern California.

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Acerol died in Los Angeles, California of liver failure in February, 2007, at age 58. He had a modest career by international art standards, but his work was superb. He was a painter, poet and sculptor and probably best known for delightful works of carved, mortared brick. The forms are chunky, earthy, earnest and funny.


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For “Venus de Milo,” [shown above] the artist references the famous painting in sculptural form, of a woman’s torso made of brick. Why brick? Acerol says he likes to flirt with architecture by working with brick. The material also has a humble quality he enjoys using: it belongs to no certain class or culture, and so is more universal than marble or granite. After crafting the basic shape of his design, he then chisels the edges smooth to give his pieces a weathered look. 18thstreet.org

...Ali Acerol's sculptures can be sat upon, and, surprisingly, they are very comfortable. But you'll get more out of them if you study them by looking, or better, by touching them. Brick, the most ancient and primitive building material known to mankind, is transformed by the artist into a seemingly receptive, pliable substance. Macho rectangular shapes of bricks slowly, grudgingly reveal its hidden feminine voice and transforms itself into furniture with soft and voluptuous contours. With furniture like that around the house, who needs friends? Review, kcrw.com, 2002.

Autobiography, published in 2006.


(Note: I have been storing the sculpture photos for a long time, and have lost the source of some of them. Lengthy web and image searches tonight did not result in sources for the table, shoes (my favorite!), nor the "Venus".)