Mark Walker

NEWS

 

Mark Walker is a Nottingham born artist, currently based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He has a MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts and a Meisterschüle from the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, where he studied Sculpture under Prof.Tobias Rehberger, and a BA in Painting from Camberwell College of Arts, UAL.

Past exhibitions include; Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2010, at the ICA, London and A-Foundation, Liverpool. Pashmina at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt. ÜBERMORGENKÜNSTLER, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, nnausea, PRETEXTO, Pasto, Colombia. And most recently; Valume at EXGIRLFRIEND gallery, Berlin, Vårutstillingen at Foto Galleriet, Oslo, Norway and Free education for all, It’s not too late to change your mind at Kunstnernes Hus Oslo, Norway.

 

Mark’s current project, ‘Dirt and Sweeping’, explores the friction between a time of regulation, the temporal discipline inherited from working-class rhythms, and another time which allows for duration, for the kind of personal experience of time that refuses reduction to units. This tension has become the working ground. Extended temporalities emerge through preservation, through repetition, through sculptural works that wait for activation. Repetition and cycles have become part of his visual language with progression, neither linear nor circular, but cyclical, moving toward something, yet never quite reaching it. The spiral embodies this paradox.

 

Mark is currently exploring drawing spiralling helixes, using technical drafting techniques. Before employing these methods, Mark’s drawings of spirals were always just bad squiggles, easier to understand in 3D. He wanted to visualise the helixes in 2D without building anything. Discovering the technical drawing technique enabled me to do this, yet the process itself became fascinating, and the path of following it has led into geometry. A geometry that relates to the division of clock faces, and movements of planets. He has pushed the technique into a process that has steadily grown more chaotic, systematically breaking away from the easily divisible numbers to explore interlocking wavelengths of different frequencies.

 

 

 

¾ Humours

¾ Humour Three contemporary artists revisit the archaic medical theory of the four humours: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic, and Choleric. Rooted in classical understandings of health, the humours were thought to govern not only the body, but temperament and mood. To be well was to be balanced; to suffer was to be out of sync. Benjamin Rostance (Melancholic/Black Bile) and Mark Walker (Sanguine/Blood), both New Contemporaries alumni, join Dr. Kerry Langsdale (Phlegmatic/Phlegm), each embodying one of the humours through their artistic practice.   The fourth humour, Choleric/Yellow Bile, traditionally associated with dominance, volatility, and aggression, is intentionally absent from this exhibition. Its absence reflects a broader view of the contemporary world, which is increasingly defined by division, anger, and reactivity. The Choleric traits already permeate public discourse, social media outrage, and systems built on competition, consumption, and control.   By leaving Yellow Bile out, the exhibition reclaims room for vulnerability and thoughtful processing, qualities often overshadowed by unchecked heat and intensity. It’s not an escape but a rebalancing: a quiet act of resistance that reminds us that true strength doesn’t always need to be loud.   Though humoral medicine has long been eclipsed by modern science, its framework of imbalance and

Details

Solar Scars

   SOLAR SCARS  MARK WALKER&JOHAN ANDRÉN opening: 08.03.25 – 6pm run time: 08.03.2025 –  end of MARCH adress: LAB106 showcase, Rossmarkt 23,60311 Frankfurt a.M.  “SOLAR SCARS”MARK WALKER / JOHAN ANDRÉNLab 106 presents a duo exhibition ‘Solar Scars’ from Johan Andrén and Mark Walker. Bringing together work reflecting their ongoing dialogue around the sun, permanence and the marks we leave behind. Their contrasting approaches, Mark’s meticulous spiraling and Andrén’s cast tin faces and rubbings, create a visual conversation between different cycles and rhythms. The exhibition explores how their practices converged and have evolved in dialogue since studying together from 2021, into work that is both striking and subtly unsettling.“When speaking to Mark about our little show, he mentioned that he had been thinking about planetary and solar rotations when making the spiral drawings, and how that related to the stars in the blown up rubbing that acts like a backdrop for the whole thing. He texted about vast solar systems and a sense of mortality.”(Johan Andrén) German Version “SOLAR SCARS” MARK WALKER / JOHAN ANDRÉN Lab 106 präsentiert die Duo-Ausstellung “Solar Scars” von Johan Andrén und Mark Walker. Die Ausstellung vereint Werke, die ihren fortlaufenden Dialog über die Sonne, Vergänglichkeit und die Spuren, die wir hinterlassen, reflektieren. Ihre kontrastierenden

Details
https://fotogalleriet.no/exhibition/spring-exhibition-2024/

Spring Exhibition

I will be taking part in this years (2024) Spring Exhibition at Fotogalleriet organised by Forbundet Frie Fotografer. The exhibition is on from 24th May to 30th June and the opening is at 18:00-21:00 on the 24th of May. I am showing photos from my ‘underfoot’ series along with an updated edition of the publication ‘Beneath one’s steps’ —  This year’s Spring Exhibition is existential, meditative and playful. With a common interest in our fragility and our search for belonging, the artists´ explores our contemporary challenges with both subtle and clear speech, from tactile and analog processes to animated and glossy surfaces.   THE ARTISTS Øistein Sæthren Dahle Jason Havneraas, Ketil Berge & Signe Holm Maren Dagny Juell Magnus B. Bjørlo Lysbakken Katharine MacDaid Duy Nguyen Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid Ulla Schildt Mark Walker   Since 1976, the Spring Exhibition has been an important yearly event for Norwegian photographic art. During 46 years, and through almost an equal number of editions, this long-standing tradition of cyclical exhibitions has driven forward photography’s position within the Norwegian art field. Every edition continues to be a unique gathering for the photographic community.  Through the Spring Exhibition, you can witness what current tendencies occupy contemporary artists and the distinctive methodologies and techniques

Details

Free Education For all: it’s not too late to change your mind.

04.05.23 – 14.05.23   Free Education for All: It’s Not Too Late to Change Your Mind is this year’s graduation show from the Oslo Art Academy’s Master of Fine Arts program. It is a gathering of disparate artistic practices from a diverse group of students, many of whom are from countries outside the EU.   Our exhibition title is a response to the Norwegian government’s introduction of tuition fees for non-EU/EEA students, with few exceptions. Contrary to the government’s own political platform, the change was passed in Stortinget on November 29th, 2022. For students at KHiO, the tuition fees are estimated to be 500 000-700 000 NOK per year. This isn’t including the high cost of living in Norway, material costs, and the fees and proof of subsistence required for student residence permits. As witnessed in Denmark and Sweden, where these fees are far less, this will cut off Norway from a world of artists, especially from those of the racialized and geographic Other. Art thrives under plurality.   It has been stated that Norway is no exception to the current day’s economic hardship and that schools need to find other sources of income. We beg to differ. We don’t believe

Details

ARTWORKS

Underfoot

In Underfoot, the technique is used to explore a vision of the close but unknown underground.

nnausea

The works for this exhibition are from the series 'nnausea' this series started from a makeshift street weapon, used in the north of England, made by gluing two blades either side of a coin.

I am sitting alone

Each stack of plug-timers are made with a different type of plug socket. And each individual timer is different, although sometimes similar.