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Cast Paintings are made by constructing a monochrome painting,
making a mold of the sides and back of it, and then pouring a series
of casts from that mold. The castings are made of polyurethane
plastic, tinted with pigments, which is mixed like paint. These paintings reflect the abstraction of contemporary life. They are an abstraction of abstract painting. By the extreme position that these works take to “objectify” painting, they equate paintings to everyday objects. This focuses on paintings as objects with meaning in themselves instead of as blank objects used as a writing surface for pictures and comments. The painting's method of construction relates to mass-produced consumer culture and our comfort with that today. Advertising, marketing and commodities are defining features of our age; and the process and materials of these paintings relate to those issues while still reflecting an artist’s need to create original objects. I am always searching for something that appears simple and effortless, but captures our situation more precisely. I consciously try to promote paradoxes within the work such as hand-made v. mechanically produced, high art v. commodity, and original v. fake. I believe that the uncertainty of what is real and what is “fake” in the paintings actually enhances the spiritual quality of the work. Monochrome paintings typically embody a spiritual quality by forcing all of the questions back on the viewer to create an intimate, contemplative experience. The same reaction is promoted by making the viewer contemplate details which would not be considered if the paintings utilized a more traditional support. In the end, I want the work to raise the mundane to the heroic. I don't intend to be ironic, but instead to compare art to our present day culture. The paintings ask whether we can obtain a grand spirituality in the objects being produced now, both in art and industry. Mark Cole 2005 |
THE NIGHT FEAST, 2004 |
THE LITTLE ONE HAS A DAY OFF, 2004 |
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| Born in Houston, Texas Lives and works in New York, NY SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2004 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM 1999 Eugene Binder Gallery, New York, NY 1998 Haggarty Gallery, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX (catalogue) SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2003 The Zen of Materiality, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM 2002 Monochrome, Mostly, Blue Star Art Complex/UTSA Satellite Space, San Antonio, TX 2000 The Tao of Painting, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX (catalogue) Small Abstract Paintings and Sculpture, Eugene Binder Gallery, New York, NY Positexan, project, Wichita, KS Plunge, Haggarty Gallery, University of Dallas, Dallas, TX (catalogue) 1999 Abstract Painting, Once Removed, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO 1998 Abstract Painting, Once Removed, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX (catalogue) A Cool Show, Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, TX (catalogue) Blunt Object, Smart Museum, Chicago, IL (catalogue) Works on Paper 98, San Jacinto College, Houston, TX Material Matters, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 1997 Monica Pierce, Mark Cole, Tome Sime, Charlie Uniform Tango, Dallas, Texas EXPO 97, 500X Gallery, Dallas, TX Critic's Choice, Dallas Visual Arts Center, Dallas, TX (catalogue) 1996 EXPO 96, 500X Gallery, Dallas, TX Critic's Choice, Dallas Visual Arts Center, Dallas, TX (catalogue) SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Zwartjes, Arend, "Monochrome Mostly," Glass Tire, February 2002 Dewan, Shaila, "What's So Great About Painting," Houston Press, October 27, 1998 Johnson, Patricia, "Abstract Artists Redraw Boundaries of Painting," Houston Chronicle, October 7, 1998 Rees, Christina, "Driven to Abstraction," The Observer, August 27, 1998 Massey, Annabelle, "For Art's Sake," The Met, August 20, 1998 Schnellenbach-Bogle, Stacy, "Cool Enough," FW Weekly, August 20, 1998 Tyson, Janet, "Cool in the Abstract," Fort Worth Star Telegram, August 13, 1998 Daniel, Mike, "Simply Cool," The Dallas Morning News, August 7, 1998 Friis-Hansen, Dana, Guest Lecture Series, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, April 7, 1998 Whitmer, Susan, Review, ArtTexNet, August 1997 Cuellar, Catherine, "EX-posing Emerging Talent in the Art World," Dallas Morning News, January 10, 1997 COLLECTIONS Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX |
