Mark Lewis (artist)
Encyclopedia
Mark Lewis in Hamilton, Ontario
is a Canadian artist
. Noted for his film installations
, Lewis represented Canada at the 2009 Venice Biennale
.
, Hamburger Kunstverein, Musée d’art moderne (Luxembourg), BFI Southbank (London), and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest, Romania). His work is in many collections including the National Gallery of Canada
, Museum of Modern Art
New York, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).
Lewis was born in Hamilton, Ontario and now lives and works in London, England. In the 1980s, he studied with Victor Burgin
and worked with Laura Mulvey
which influenced his later approach to cinema and video. Mulvey and Lewis produced the documentary Disgraced Monuments in 1991. From 1989 to 1997 he lived in Vancouver becoming part of the burgeoning photoconceptualism scene of the Vancouver School
. Much of his work focuses on the technology of film and the different genres which have been developed in over 100 years of film history. His films are often short, precise exercises on particular techniques. However, there is also an underlying social or political thematic in his work, often created by choosing very specific urban or rural locations for his films that have a particular economic or social status.
He is co-editorial director of the publisher Afterall
, which produces a journal of contemporary art and a series of books and readers. It is published in London, Antwerp and Seville.
In 2009 he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. The exhibition was curated by Barbara Fischer.
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
is a Canadian artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. Noted for his film installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, Lewis represented Canada at the 2009 Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
.
Biography
Lewis attended Harrow College of Art (London) and the Polytechnic of Central London. He started as a photographer and began making film-based installations in the mid‑1990s. He has had solo museum exhibitions at the UBC Fine Arts Museum,Vancouver, Vancouver Art GalleryVancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
, Hamburger Kunstverein, Musée d’art moderne (Luxembourg), BFI Southbank (London), and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest, Romania). His work is in many collections including the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
New York, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).
Lewis was born in Hamilton, Ontario and now lives and works in London, England. In the 1980s, he studied with Victor Burgin
Victor Burgin
Victor Burgin is an artist and a writer. Burgin first came to attention as a conceptual artist in the late 1960s and at that time was most noted for being a political photographer of the left, who would fuse photographs and words in the same picture. He has worked with photography and film,...
and worked with Laura Mulvey
Laura Mulvey
Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London...
which influenced his later approach to cinema and video. Mulvey and Lewis produced the documentary Disgraced Monuments in 1991. From 1989 to 1997 he lived in Vancouver becoming part of the burgeoning photoconceptualism scene of the Vancouver School
Vancouver School
The Vancouver School of conceptual or post-conceptual photography is a loose term applied to a grouping of artists from Vancouver starting in the 1980s...
. Much of his work focuses on the technology of film and the different genres which have been developed in over 100 years of film history. His films are often short, precise exercises on particular techniques. However, there is also an underlying social or political thematic in his work, often created by choosing very specific urban or rural locations for his films that have a particular economic or social status.
He is co-editorial director of the publisher Afterall
Afterall
Afterall is a nonprofit contemporary art research and publishing organisation. It is based in London, at Central St Martins College of Art & Design....
, which produces a journal of contemporary art and a series of books and readers. It is published in London, Antwerp and Seville.
In 2009 he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. The exhibition was curated by Barbara Fischer.
Further reading
- Lewis, Mark and Johanne Lamoureux. Mark Lewis: Public Art, Photographs and Projects. Vancouver: UBC Fine Arts Gallery, 1994. ISBN 088865300X
- Rush, Michael, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Laura Mulvey and Karen Allen. Mark Lewis. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2006. ISBN 1846310377
- Tousley, Nancy. "So Much to See: The Films of Mark Lewis." Canadian Art (Summer 2009): 48-61.