Mark Spencer
The best of modern and postmodern painting is bound by the connective tissue of spiritual values. Mark Spencer’s art resonates with this connectivity; he emerges from a seemingly disparate lineage of artists including Odilon Redon, Max Ernst, Jose Clemente Orozco, and even Francis Bacon. Yet looking back at the crucible of time that shaped those artists great narrative tableaux, we can see and acknowledge the logic that produced Spencer and his contemporaries. This group includes Jeff Wall, Mark Tansey, Anselm Kiefer, and Vincent Desiderio; all artists who share a strong sense of the feminine, and who stand squarely within the mainstream of contemporary art making.
A survey of Spencer’s paintings and prints begs the theory that religion divides while spirituality unites people. At once formal yet psychological in their premise, Spencer’s images seek out sacred spaces where rituals of life and renewal are momentarily beheld in their eternal, difficult dance. As in every true ritual, a sacrifice must be made; spilling metaphorical blood as the most honest offering a human being can make to the numinous.
- Clayton Campbell is the Los Angeles correspondent for Flash Art Magazine, and the Co-Director and Curator of the internationally famous 18th street arts Complex in Santa Monica.
EDUCATION:
1971 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2004 Mark Spencer Monotypes, James Reid, Ltd.
2003 Dark Resonance: The ART of Mark Spencer, Boulder Museum of Fine Arts, Bolder CO.
2002 Beyond Reason: Paintings and Monoprints by Mark Spencer, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA.
2001 Vanier Gallery, Scottdale, AZ.
2000 Seductions, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
1999 Mark Spencer: Monotypes, Vanier Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ.
1997 Mark Spencer: Paintings and Monotypes, , 1984 - 1997, Greenville County Museum, Greenville, SC.
1996 Towards the Unobtainable Ideal, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2008 Carlos Carulo and Mark Spencer, Goldleaf Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
2008 Santa Fe Super Stars, Goldleaf Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
2007 From Barbizon to Santa Fe, Argos Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
2007 "Retreat", Goldleaf Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
2005 15 Santa Fe Artists, Las Vegas Museum of Art, Las Vegas, NV.
2004 The Drawing Show: Wiford and Vogt Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM.
2003 Re-Representing Representation VI, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY.
2002 From Realism to Abstraction, Art in New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts
In Pursuit of Peace, 18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA.
2001 Re-Presenting Representation V, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira NY.
2000 American Scene II, Van Vechten-Lineberry Taos Art Museum, Taos, NM.
1999 Realism Meets Abstraction, Jenking Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
The Nude, Van de Griff Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
Pleasures of the Palettes, C.A.S.A. Benefit Exhibit, Scottsdale, AZ.
1997 Waterproof Wallet Art, Albrecht-Kemper Museum, St. Joseph, MO.
1995 The Enduring Inspiration, New Mexico Landscape Painting, Cline Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & FILMS:
2008 100 Santa Fe Etchers. Publisher: Bell Tower Editions
2006 Artists of the Southwest
2001 In the Presence of Fear
2001 Barbaric Mercies
1999 Tortilla Heaven
1998 The Sound Man
1997 ARTnews
COLLECTIONS:
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Geenville County Museum, Greenville, SC
Williams College Museum, Williamstown, MA
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
John D. Merriman Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
Frank Ribelin Collection, Dallas, TX
Kathleen Peters Collection, Santa Fe, NM
Jane Smith Collection, Santa Fe, NM
James Reid Collection, Santa Fe, NM
Jack Copeland Collection, Baltimore, MD
Dennis Foy Collection, Summit, NJ
Joe Regele Collection, New York, NY
Marty and Laya Bloom Collection, Houston, TX
Dan Anthony Collection, Sant Fe, NM
Kay Barber Collection, Carmel, CA
Urban Hirsch Collection, Los Angeles, CA
University of West Virginia
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
University of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Dr. Robert Bell, Santa Fe, NM
Jerry Vanier Collection, Scottsdale, AZ