Mark Manders

Composition with Blue

Mark Manders is a Dutch artist. He was born in 1968 in Volkel, Netherlands. At first, he studied graphic design until age eighteen. He changed his mind and decided to be a writer but with objects instead of words. He became very interested in the paralleled evolution of humans and objects. Manders's body of work consists mainly of installations, drawings, sculptures and short films. Typical of his work is the arrangement of random objects, such as tables, chairs, light bulbs, blankets and dead animals. He is best known for his rough-hewn clay sculptures. Manders is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York.

Self portrait as a building

Since 1986 Manders has been making Self-portrait as a building. The first of this series of fictional architectural plans was Inhabited for a Survey, (First Floor Plan from Self Portrait of a Building) (1986), where the plan is drawn on the floor of the gallery using pencils, crayons and other markers. The fictional building represents a fictional artist, "Mark Manders", an alter-ego distinct from the artist Mark Manders. This fictitious character is described by the artist as a, "Neurotic, sensitive individual who can only exist in an artificial world." Each of his exhibitions includes an evolving floor plan of the self-portrait building along with various art works.d He uses this architecture to drive his work and allow it to make the decisions, calling it a "machine", but at the same time bringing objects to a standstill as he develops these memory spaces. Despite creating this fictional space, he insists on using "real objects" in the "real world" to make his sculptures. “I don’t often show my work in the public domain, rather in museums where people choose to go to see art. But since 1991 I always test a work that I’ve just finished in a supermarket. I just imagine a new work there and I check if it can survive where it doesn’t have the label of an artwork. It is just a thing that someone placed in a supermarket. Now I am sure that all of my works can stand in that environment.” He often feels alien to the real world and its institutional art settings. He insists that his work stays the same throughout its exhibitions but gets re-contextualized each time it enters the "real world".

Exhibitions

In 2002 Manders was selected for the documenta 11 exhibition in Kassel, Germany. In 2003 Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich and the Art Institute of Chicago in co-operation with the Renaissance Society have organized solo-exhibitions of his work.

In 2004, he was selected for the Manifesta Biennale in San Sebastian (ES). In 2005, the solo-project "Matrix 214: The Absence of Mark Manders" was held at the Berkeley Art Museum in California (US) and another solo show "Parallel Occurrence" has run at IMMA Dublin. In 2006, the artist was represented at the 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporaray Art.

Fox / Mouse / Belt

For 2007/2008, Manders has been invited by several venues around the world to have a solo show, for instance New Museum in New York (US), Kunstverein Hannover (DE), Bergen Kunsthall (N), Kunsthaus Zürich (CH) and S.M.A.K. in Ghent (BE). In 2013 he was selected for the Dutch pavillion in the Venice Biennale.

His works are held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

2008 Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International [1]

Below is a list of his solo exhibitions: Solo Exhibitions: 2013 55th Venice Biennale, Venice 2012 Carré d'Art - Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes 2012 Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas,USA (cat.) 2011 The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (cat.) 2011 The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin 2011 Aspen Art Museum, USA (cat.) 2011 THe Art Show, New York (Tanya Bonakdar) 2011 La Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City 2011 Carrillo Gil Museum of Art, Mexico City (cat.) 2010 UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA (cat.) 2010 Jarla Partilager, Stockholm / Mark Manders (cat.) 2010 Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp 2009 Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2009 Kunsthaus Zürich (cat.) 2008 SMAK, Gent (cat.) 2008 Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen (cat.) 2007 Kunstverrein Hannover / The Absence of Mark Manders (cat.) 2007 Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York 2006 Baltic, Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle,Gateshead, UK / Short Sad Thoughts (cat.) 2005 The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin / Parallel Occurrence (cat.) 2005 Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley / Matrix / The Absence of Mark Manders 2004 Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp / Silent Studio 2003 The Art Institute of Chicago / Isolated Rooms (cat.) 2003 The Renaissance Society / Isolated Rooms (cat.) 2003 Pinakothek der Moderne, Munchen / Silent Factory 2002 Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo / Kaleidoscope Night (cat.) 2002 Cobra Museum, Amstelveen / Yellow Bathtub (cat.) 2002 Greene Naftali Gallery, New York 2002 The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia 2002 Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (cat.) 2000 Greene Naftali Gallery, New York / Reduced November Room (Reduced to 88%) 2000 The Drawing Center, New York / Room with Several Night Drawings and One Reduced Night Scene (cat.) 2000 Kabinet Overholland - Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam / Night Drawings 1999 Galerie Friedrich, Berne / Coloured Room with Black and White Scene (cat.) 1998 XXIV Bienal de São Paulo / Self-portrait in a Surrounding Area (cat.) 1998 Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden / 14 Fragments from Self-portrait as a Building (cat.) 1997 The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (cat.) 1997 Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp 1997 De Appel, Amsterdam (cat.) 1995 Galerie Erika + Otto Friedrich, Berne 1994 MuHKA, Antwerp (cat.) 1994 Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (cat.) 1994 Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp 1992 Lokaal 01, Breda 1990 De Oceaan, Arnhem 1990 Zeppelin, Amsterdam

External links

• Artist's website