Mark Epstein
I am trying to make an abbreviated language constructed of dichotomies, of elements that have historically been held up in opposition to one another. I am making paintings from what is available, never relying too heavily on a single strategy but constantly pushing an evolving collision of painterly languages. My work strives for a visual wordplay, for a slang of colour and shape that adheres to rules while enjoying improvisational moments.
This work asks, rather than answers questions—it poses problems, presents issues and argues with itself at top volume
These are conceptual paintings—this work attempts to redefine “conceptual”, which has become just an adjunct word for art that is actively disengaged from the visual.
How far can you push abstraction as a method of image making? In my work, to push abstraction is to infect it with representation—to discount the idea of a pure abstraction as outmoded. Can I in fact push abstraction further by dealing with representation?
Biography
1979 Born in Washington D.C. USA
Selected Exhibitions
2005 Showcase 2005, The Tank, New York City
2005 "Local Knowledge", KHN Center for the Arts, Nebraska
2005 Starving Artists Ball Exhibition, New York City
2005 New Art ‘05, Kingston Gallery, Boston MA
2005 "Risky Business", The Tank,, New York City
2005 "Surface Tension" Toni Heath Gallery, London
2005 "Delayed Gratification", (with John Walter), Space Two-Ten-Two, London
2004 "reoccupy", Contemporary Abstract Paintings, Candid Gallery, London
2004 "The Relaxed Audience or Why Are We So Wise", Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London
2004 "Jeffrey Charles Gallery Booth", Zoo Art Fair, London
2004 "Wonka's Wigs", Welbeck Space, London
2003 "Category B", The Empire, London
2001 "Fresh Voices", Grossman Gallery, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2000 "Cool, Compelling, Collected", Aidekman Gallery, Tufts University, Medford, MA
Selected Awards, Residencies & Bursaries
2005 Winter Residency, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska
2004 Artist In Residence, Sherwin Knight Community Infant School, ongoing
2004 Dolbey Travel Fellowship for research in Morocco, Southern Italy & France
2003 Project Award given by Slade School of Fine Art
Education
MA Fine Art with distinction Slade School of Fine Art, London
BA Fine Arts School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston