Mark Banks is an American artist living and working in Chicago. His work is critically interested in the urgent material circumstances of the Anthropocene, our troubled contemporary age of escalating climate collapse and mass ecocide. Having grown up upon the social and economic ruins of the American rust-belt, his interventions are particularly interested in the ways that political, historical, and ideological forces impact the material conditions of our collectively lived experiences, often for the worse. Foiled against these issues, the question of time appears, for the artist, as a looming and foreboding presence across his oeuvre. Time infuses each of his creative gestures with its inexorable presence, imposing its own problems of mortality and impermanence upon them with the same force and insistence according to which the march of time devours history and the cosmos alike.
Curriculum Vitae
Born in Chicago, United States, 1981.
Lives and works in Chicago, United States.
Solo exhibitions:
2023 In the Fields of Rotting Giants. Ford Calumet Environmental Center; Chicago IL, United States
Group exhibitions:
2024 NordArt 2024. Kunstwerk
2024 30th Annual Juried Exhibition. Art Barn School of Art; Valparaiso IN, United States
2024 Awakening Earth. Zhou B Art Center; Chicago IL, United States
2024 2024 Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition. York Gallery; York, United Kingdom
2023 The Ann Metzger Memorial National Biennial Exhibition. St. Louis Artists’ Guild; St. Louis MO, United States
2023 Sweet Home Chicago. Bridgeport Art Center; Chicago IL, United States
2023 Home Not Home. Agitator Gallery; Chicago IL, United States
Awards & Honors:
2024 2024 Aesthetica Art Prize Longlisted Artist; Aesthetica Magazine
2023 Chicago Dept of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Individual Artist Program grant winner
2021 Friends of the Forest Preserves Photography Competition; Honorable Mention
Public Art:
2021 Meeting of the Styles. Community mural; Chicago IL, United States
2020 Native Wildflowers. Mural at The Joinery; Chicago IL, United States
2019 Wild Mushrooms. Mural at Blnkhaus Gallery; Chicago IL, United States
Media:
2023 Art Top 5: August 2023; NewCity
2023 Great Lakes Now Season 3 Ep. 6: “A Better Future“; Detroit Public TV, Public Broadcasting Service
Publications:
2023 Laminator, Vol. 1; ed. by Jenny Lam. Artists on the Lam.
2020 Paddenstoelen In Kunst, Cultuur en Natuur; Antoon Kuhlmann, Dominique Clement. Knnv Publishers.