Biography
Resting between two and three dimensions as color-shifting pigments on waves of fabric in resin, like glossy dimensional frescoes the works emerging from In Medias Res wrestle with our connections to consciousness, time, and space.
His process seeks to address how we can amplify our intentions and positive energy to create the change we want in spaces that are both real and imagined. Finding subject and context, frame and format to be competitively interwoven in their stated composition, much like all matters of perception and abstraction, these works began as words that began to investigate the portal as described in art theory, then the portal in physics and then began to reflect on many philosophies and variations of the shape of existence at the intersection of our observational universe and model-dependent realities.
Having planted the roots of this practice in the vast and rugged environments of Alaska and Arizona with an adventurous spirit and moderate restraints imposed by epilepsy-- his background nurtured the belief that we have a relatively open contextual identity bonded and realized more by where we set our focal points than our chosen aesthetics. Depthening this resolution in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and now in Brooklyn, this work grapples with our relationship to physicality, the dimensions of our influence, and ultimately the expansion of our environment to accept frontiers of humanity on other planets in our system and perhaps galaxy. In focusing on this ecology of collaborating and competing narratives fostering our perception of reality, Stafford offers a dialectic negotiation of physical and source materials to produce aesthetic disclosures that dance with advanced theories in physics and art and nudge us to question the nature of existence as we begin our chassé towards the stars as this narrative comes closer into focus for humanity.
CV
Mark Stafford
Brooklyn, New York
EDUCATION
2005
MFA – Studio Art. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia, PA
2002
BFA – Studio Art and Education. School of Art, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
SOLO EXHIBITION HISTORY
2019
Third Person, Ground Floor Gallery. Brooklyn, NY, curated by Krista Scenna
*(2 person w/ Cat Glennon)
2012
--- Table of contents --- , SLAG Gallery, New York, NY
2009
—W O R K—, Bronx Blue Bedroom Project. Bronx, NY
SELECTED ART FAIRS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
FOCUS New York
2021
SCOPE Miami Beach
2019
North x Northwest, Yellowstone Art Museum. Billings, MT, juried by Julia Andrews
Library and Museum of Electronic Waste, LES Ecology Center. New York, NY, curated by Christine Datz-Romero
2014
Apocryphal Times, Friedman Benda. New York, NY curated by Tamara Kostianovsky
SELECT 2014, Phillip Bloom Gallery. Miami, FL curated by Tim Goossens
2013
David, Shirey Gallery. Brooklyn, NY curated by Stan Narten and Matt White
2012
Every Exit is an Entrance, Exit Art. New York, NY curated by Papo Colo
2011
Franconia Sculpture Park (Fellowship Exhibition), Franconia, MN curated by John Hock
RE/Mixed Digital Art Festival. Brooklyn, NY curated by Tom Tenny
2010
Cityscape: Surveying the Urban Biotope, Socrates Sculpture Park. Queens, NY curated by Alyson Baker and Marichris Ty
The Last Book, The Zentralbibliothek. Zürich, Switzerland, project by Luis Camnitzer
Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo. ULA-2010 [La Pantalla y el Marco]. Centro De Investigaciones Esteticas; Merida, Venezuela.
2009
The Act of Drawing, VIVID. Birmingham, United Kingdom curated by Laura Coult
The Fountain Art Fair, Alice Chilton Gallery. Miami, FL Jill McDermid
Plan B, NurtureART. Brooklyn, NY curated by Krista Saunders
Illiterature, LIMN Gallery. San Francisco, CA & Frumkin/Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA curated by Mark Carter
2008
AIM 28:How Soon is Now?, Bronx Museum of Art. Bronx, NY curator: Erin Riley-Lopez
Catching the Word, Black & White Gallery//Chelsea. NY, NY curator: Tatyana Okshteyn
Works on Paper, O’H+T. Boston, MA curators: Kathleen O’Hara and Caroline Taggart
Aqua Art fair Miami/Wynwood. Miami, FL Curs: Kathleen O’Hara and Caroline Taggart
SELECTED REVIEWS
R.C. Baker, Village Voice. “Best in Show: 'How Soon Is Now?' at the Bronx Museum of the Arts ”.
Barbara Hoffman and Calla Salinger, The New York Post. “Be a part of the art: Sculpture you can walk through-or picnic”.
The New Yorker. Goings on About town. “Bronx Museum of the Arts.”
Leah Ollman, the Los Angeles Times, “Review: ‘Illiterature’ at Arena 1 Gallery.”
Brooke Sopelsa, www.cnbc.com, “Recession Inspired Art Grows in Brooklyn”
AWARDS & HONORS
2011
Jerome Fellowship – FSP
2010
Socrates Production Grant
2009
Puffin Foundation Grant
RESIDENCIES
2011
Voulenteer Lawyers for the Arts Residency, New York, New York
2011
Franconia Sculpture Park, Minnesota
2010
Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York
PUBLICATIONS and INTERVIEWS
The Collection Vol #3, with OPEN DOORS and the Center for Transformative Action, 2022
ART IDEAL Magazine, Circle Foundation, September/October 2020
Socrates Sculpture Park, Thirty Years. Introduction by John Hatfield, essays by Jamie Bennett, Mark di Suvero, and Phong Bui 2019.
Alternative Histories: New York Art Spaces, 1960 to 2010. Edited by Lauren Rosati and Mary Anne Stainszewski. Published by MIT Press, 2012.
AIM 28: How Soon is Now?. Forward essay by Claire Barliant. Publ: Bedwick & Jones, 2008.
New American Paintings. Northeastern Competition, #68. Boston: The Open Studio Press, 2007.
COLLECTIONS
Mark Stafford's work is in multiple public and private collections available upon request