Mark Manders
Manders was born in Volkel, Netherlands, but is currently residing in Ronse, Belgium. He is the winner of the 2002 Philip Morris Art Prize, and he received the prestigious Dr. A.H Heineken Prize for Art in 2010.
For more than three decades, Mark Manders has developed an endless self-portrait in the form of sculpture, still life, and architectural plans. Described by the artist as his ongoing “self-portrait as a building,” Manders’ works present mysterious and evocative tableaux that allow viewers to construct their own narrative conclusions and meanings.
Initially inspired by an interest in writing and literature, Manders’ first conception of the self-portrait was more literal, employing language and the written word to describe his own narrative in an autobiography. Moving beyond the limits of language, he later began to explore the architecture of story telling, focusing on structure, rather than on specific content. This early realization resulted in his first sculptural investigations of form, meaning and narrative, which over the years have developed into a remarkable, and continually expanding body of work.
Manders participated in group exhibitions at the Louvre in Paris (2015), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2015), Guggenheim Museum in New York (2015), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2014), Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht (2014), 21er Haus in Vienna (2014), The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford (2012), the Menil Collection in Houston (2012), David Roberts Arts Foundation in London (2012), MoMA in New York (2012), ICA in Philadelphia (2011), DESTE Foundation in Athens (2011), Kunsthalle Bern (2010), amongst many others.
Manders has been commissioned by Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2017) and Rokin Square in Amsterdam (2017). In 2019, he has been commissioned by the Public Art Fund to create a large sculpture for Doris C. Freedman Plaza in New York’s Central Park. In October 2019 his work will be featured as part of Surrounds at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Manders’ work can be found in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among many others.
