Mark Alexander (born 1966) is a British artist living and working in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Biography

Born in the small market town of

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, Alexander came to painting relatively late, receiving his BFA from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

as a mature student in 1996, despite his lack of formal education or training. Alexander was an artist in residence at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn, Germany (2014–15). Alexander has nine of his works included in the permanent collection of The Centre Pompidou Foundation, Paris.

Style and works

Alexander's style is characterised by meticulous labour-intensive brushwork. His art often reinvents the icons of the past, recasting such well-known cultural objects as the

Shield of Achilles The shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer's ''Iliad''. The intricately detailed imagery on the shield has inspired many different interpr ...

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...

's famous portrait of the French physician

Paul Gachet Paul-Ferdinand Gachet (30 July 1828 – 9 January 1909) was a French physician most famous for treating the painter Vincent van Gogh during his last weeks in Auvers-sur-Oise. Gachet was a great supporter of artists and the Impressionist movement ...

, and ruined statues of saints in New College, Oxford. Alexander's painstaking technique, requiring many months to complete a single work, has attracted both praise and befuddlement from critics. ‘Mark Alexander’, according to the

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

newspaper, ‘cuts an enigmatic figure in the art world, attracting the interest of some of its most influential collectors. He has produced only twenty-two paintings since his career began in 1993. This is due not to idleness but to a sort of manic fastidiousness.’ ‘The works of this self-taught artist combine elements of eighteenth-century classicism, nineteenth-century photography, and modern photo-realism.’Colin Gleadell, ''Market News'', The

, 28 March 2005 Alexander's portraits include ones of the contemporary British poet

Craig Raine Craig Anthony Raine, FRSL (born 3 December 1944) is an English contemporary poet. Along with Christopher Reid, he is a notable pioneer of Martian poetry, a movement that expresses alienation with the world, society and objects. He was a fellow of ...

(b. 1944) and the celebrated English architect Sir

Thomas Graham Jackson Sir Thomas Graham Jackson, 1st Baronet (21 December 1835 – 7 November 1924) was one of the most distinguished British architects of his generation. He is best remembered for his work at Oxford, including the Oxford Military College at Cowl ...

. His recent copies of

's notorious Portrait of Dr Gachet, in which he has siphoned off all of the colour of the original, replacing it with heavy black pigment, caused considerable controversy when exhibited in London in 2005. Alexander's Red Mannheim altarpieces have been included in the 2010 St Paul's cathedral art programme along with Anthony Gormley, Damien Hirst, Bill Viola, Yoko Ono and others.

Exhibitions

Selected Solo Exhibitions: * 2021 ''Mark Alexander: Love Between the Atoms'' SAUVAGE, Düsseldorf, Germany * 2016 ''Wrestling with Angels'' Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany * 2015 ''Credo'' Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, Germany * 2014-2015 "Red and White Mannheim" Bode Museum, Berlin, Germany * 2014 "Mannheim Paintings" Galerie Bastian, Berlin, Germany * 2013 "American Bog" Broadway 1602 Gallery, New York, USA * 2012 "Ground and Unground" Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK * 2010 "Red Mannheim" St.Paul's Cathedral, London, UK * 2009 ''The Blacker Gold'' Haunch of Venison Gallery, Berlin, Germany * 2005 ''The Bigger Victory: Retrospective'' (

Haunch of Venison Haunch of Venison was a contemporary art gallery operating from 2002 until 2013. It supported the work of contemporary leading artists, presented a broad and critically acclaimed program of exhibitions to a large public through international exh ...

Gallery), London * 2001 ''The Abhorrence of Virtue and the Love of Vice'' (Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London) * 1999 ''Ozymandias'' (Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London) Selected Group Exhibitions: * 2020 ''Hotel Beethoven'' BOZAR Brussels, Brussels, Belgium * 2019-2020 "In bester Gesellschaft:Joseph Stielers Beethoven-Portrat und seine Geschichte" Beethoven Haus, Bonn, Germany * 2019 "Android.Radical.Dream.Grid.Algorithm.Real.Data.God.AI...." Projektraum-Kinstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Germany * 2019 "Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art" Rosenfeld Porcini, London, UK * 2019 "Portraits Beyond a Likeness" Agnew's Gallery, London, UK * 2018 "THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'" Galerie Bastian, Berlin, Germany * 2018 "Summer Exhibition" Royal Academy, London UK * 2016 " LUDWIG VAN: Le Mythe Beethoven" Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, France * 2016 " Collection of Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner" The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France * 2016 "At The Still Point" Galerie Bastian, Berlin, Germany * 2016 "

Herd of Sheffield The Herd of Sheffield was a charity event in the summer of 2016 in Sheffield, England. Wild in Art organised the public art trail which was run in aid of the Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity. The theme of the project revolved around sculptu ...

" The Children's Hospital Charity, Sheffield, UK * 2016 "One Egg a Day" PantaleonsMuehlengasse, Köln, Germany * 2015 "Beethoven im Blick moderner und historischer Kunst" Kulturhaus Zanders Bergisch Gladbach, Germany * 2015 "Das Verschwundene Museum" Bode Museum, Berlin, Germany * 2013 "Green Flower Street" Tatiana Kourochkina Galleria D"Art, Istanbul, Turkey * 2012 "power FLOWER:Blüten Zauber in der Zeitgenössischen Kunst", Galerie ABTART, Stuttgart, Germany * 2011 "Ars Apocalipsis, Kunst und Kollaps" Kunstverein Kreis, Veerhoffhaus, Gütersloh, Germany * 2011 "Play-The Frivolous and the Serious" ME Collectors Room, Berlin Germany * 2010 "The Library of Babel - In and Out of Place" 176 Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK * 2010 "Summer Exhibition" Royal Academy of Art, London, UK * 2010 "Flowers, Death And Butterflies" Ausstellungsraum Céline und Heiner Bastian, Berlin, Germany * 2010 "Poetic Justice" Moss Gallery, New York, USA * 2008 "Summer Exhibition" Royal Academy of Art, London, UK * 2002 ''The Galleries Show'' (The

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

, London) * 2002 ''On the Move'' (

Kunsthalle A kunsthalle is a facility that mounts temporary art exhibitions, similar to an art gallery. It is distinct from an art museum by not having a permanent collection. In the German-speaking regions of Europe, ''Kunsthallen'' are often operated by ...

, Basel) * 2001 ''I am a Camera'' (

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

, London) * 1998 ''Black (with Lucia Nogueira)'' (Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Mark 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters Living people 1966 births Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists