Mark Wilson - Biography

Artwork:

Late Skew, 1985

Ranking Graph:

Artfacts.Net™ Chart

Artist's arttributes:
•	Male

Most exhibitions in:
Country	№
Germany	6
USA	4
United Kingdom	1
Belgium	1

Most exhibitions shown with:
Artist	Rank	№
Jean-Pierre Hébert	10492	7
Manfred Mohr	1104	7
Frieder Nake	4246	6
Roman Verostko	22369	5
Véra Molnar	1681	5

Most exhibitions held at:
Institution		№
	[DAM] Berlin, Germany	3
	[DAM] Frankfurt, Germany	2

Biography:

1943 Born in (US)

Since the late sixties, my paintings and drawings have been involved with geometric abstraction. These visual structures have been both complex and precise. My fascination with diagrams, circuit boards, and technological imagery was a strong influence. In 1980, instead of abstractly picturing computers, I began working directly with microcomputers. There was little or no software of interest, so I began writing my own code. During the eighties and early nineties, I worked with pen plotters. Next, I made monochromatic drawings with laser printers. In recent years, I have moved to archival ink jet printers.

The software and methodology used with these different devices are similar. These images are made in a two-part process. First, simple geometric images are generated on a computer screen. Next, a rectangular section of the screen image is plotted, pixel-by-pixel. The pixels are drawn as various geometric objects: circles, filled boxes, crosses, and so forth. They can be large or small, and can be mapped onto various geometric surfaces, such as planes, cylinders, and cones. These pixel mapping procedures, while uncomplicated, have proven to be remarkably versatile and adaptable.

There are several important qualities in this process: the tedium of hand-making pictures has been replaced a torrent of images emanating from the software and the computer. More importantly, the computer excited me because of the promise of a new aesthetic, a new vision of the world. I have directly used the digital nature of this medium. Indeed, these pictures would be unrealizable in any other medium. Rather than trying to disguise pixels, they have become the central element of my art making. Perhaps this technique will reveal a new visual geometry, unattainable before the advent of computing.

[Marc Wilson]
Scholarship 1973 Commission on the Arts, State of Connecticut

1978 Commission on the Arts, State of Connecticut

1982 Visual Artists Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts

1987 Commission on the Arts, State of Connecticut

2008 Commission on the Arts, State of Connecticut

Lives and works in West Cornwall, Connecticut.