Mark Wilson: Life in Dead of Winter

Glenn Horowitz Bookseller is pleased to announce the debut of a new project that will transform our gallery space for a period of 10 weeks beginning January 26, 2008. Mark Wilson uses art to interact with the dynamism of the earth. His new installation--a single work composed of paintings and sculptural objects--is a place to encounter the power and sublimity of nature’s enduring forces.

The geologic energies that govern land and sea and the cycles and seasons that coordinate life are always apparent but rarely consciously engaged. The world is simple, an endless series of bluntly physical things, yet also mysterious in the way it ultimately remains just beyond the mind’s grasp. This mystery exercises a powerful fascination and many are drawn to pastimes (gardening, cooking, fishing, hiking) that directly and viscerally engage with the world. Wilson surfs. He also makes sculpture from driftwood recovered from the ocean and paintings using a pendulum-based apparatus that harnesses gravity and centripetal force to spin elegant threads of color onto a surface.

Wilson incorporates the elemental lure of the “hands-on” into his art; the basic human need to grasp hold of the physical world is central to his aesthetic. His sculpture doubles as furniture; it can be touched and stands up to regular use. His driftwood constructions take the form of benches, chairs, tables and shelves. To touch or sit on one of these objects is to awaken to the metaphorical resonance of the material. Driftwood is a product of tide and current, it carries a trace of the sea and an installation largely built from this material naturally becomes a place to consider the vast oceanic systems that encircle globe. The other component of the installation is a series of paintings and wallpaper with a recurring abstract circular motif. The paintings are made by harnessing gravity and centripetal force and so embody the cycles of nature. Most are dark and inky with pale color emerging like starlight from the night sky and like a crisp starry night they tend to induce a contemplative state of mind. One large canvas, positioned at the far fringe of the installation, breaks with this color scheme: it is bright solar orange and suggests daybreak, or perhaps the idea of coming summer imagined in mid-January.

Antecedents such as Carl Andre (who said, ‘my idea of a sculpture is a road’) and Joseph Beuys (‘I think the tree is an element of regeneration which in itself is a concept of time’) are clearly in evidence, but Wilson’s work is equally inspired by ancient shamanic and mystical practices as it is by contemporary art and architectural work. This installation is a place for a mid-winter reverie, an artistic meditation on the regenerative processes that occur when days are short and weather cold.

Mark Wilson has shown at Tony Shafrazi, Fawbush, and White Columns in New York, as well as other venues throughout the US, Europe, and Australia. His work is in numerous public and private collections. In 1992 he was the recipient of a prestigious grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. For more information or images please email info@GHbookseller.com