Mark Sink (born 1958,

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, CO) is an American photographer best known for romantic portraiture. Some of his most recognizable images include documentation of life and work of artists such as

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

Jean Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

Rene Ricard Rene Ricard (July 23, 1946 – February 1, 2014) was an American poet, actor, art critic, and painter. Life and career Albert Napoleon Ricard was born in Boston and grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts near New Bedford. As a young teenager he ran ...

and other artists from the New York art scene of the 1980s, before returning to Denver. Mark Sink has been exhibiting his work professionally since 1978 to the present day from street art, commercial galleries, museums and other institutions.ARTnet
/ref>

Photography

Career

Mark Sink started his career using the Diana, a 120 plastic toy camera, whose soft focus and inconsistencies create beautifully romantic black and white images. The artist used this simple tool to create moving and intimate portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and Rene Ricard,

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Adam Fuss Adam Fuss (born 1961) is a British photographer. Early life Adam Fuss was born in England in 1961. His father manufactured women's coats and his mother was an Australian fashion model. Fuss's father suffered a stroke in 1963 and required cons ...

Edward Ruscha Edward Joseph Ruscha IV (, ''roo-SHAY''; born December 16, 1937) is an American artist associated with the pop art movement. He has worked in the media of painting, printmaking, drawing, photography and film. He is also noted for creating severa ...

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and many others. Sink's long career includes work from

darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and ph ...

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

, photo silkscreen,

Polaroid Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras * Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation * Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs * Polar ...

cyanotype The cyanotype (from Ancient Greek κυάνεος - ''kuáneos'', “dark blue” + τύπος - ''túpos'', “mark, impression, type”) is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet ...

s, and silver prints, as well as

platinum print Platinum prints, also called ''platinotypes'', are photographic prints made by a monochrome photographic printing, printing process involving platinum. Platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are ...

ing. In the past decade, Sink and his partner Kristen Hatgi Sink have been using an early photographic process of collodion wet plate for romantic portraiture, photographing friends and models to Governor John Hickenlooper,

Gogol Bordello Gogol Bordello is an American punk rock band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 by musicians from all over the world and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Ro ...

Ryan McGinley Ryan McGinley (born October 17, 1977) is an American photographer living in New York City. McGinley began making photographs in 1998. In 2003, at the age of 25, he was one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of Ameri ...

and

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

Exhibition History

His portraits and other works have been continuously exhibited in the United States, South America and Europe. His work has appeared at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between t ...

Museum of Contemporary Art Denver The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA Denver), in Denver, Colorado, was founded in 1996 as the first dedicated home for contemporary art in the city of Denver. For seven years, MCA Denver occupied a renovated fish market in Sakura Square in lower dow ...

, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art,BMoCA
/ref> Jeffery Deitch Projects, Kinsey Institute,Kinsey Institute Collection
/ref> Byers-Evans House Museum and MUFOCO,Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea
/ref> as well as many commercial art galleries in group and solo exhibitions. Sink's contributing editorial photography appeared in print and online in

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...

Interview Magazine ''Interview'' is an American magazine founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol and British journalist John Wilcock. The magazine, nicknamed "The Crystal Ball of Pop", features interviews with celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinke ...

Aspen Magazine ''Aspen Magazine'' is a magazine in Aspen, Colorado, United States.Stephen Blake Mettee, ''The American Directory of Writer's Guidelines: More Than 1,700 Magazine Editors and Book Publishers Explain What They are Looking for from Freelancers'', Q ...

an
MGF
MG Enthusiast
/ref>

Founder / Curator

Month of Photography (MoP Denver)

Mark Sink is the founder and director of Month of Photography Denver (MoP).Dikeou Collection
/ref> Starting in 2004, the festival has gained momentum,
/ref> Sink biennially coordinates over hundred eighty regional galleries, museums and art spaces to celebrate national and international photography across Colorado.Month of Photography Denver
/ref>Westword Denver
/ref> In recent years of the MoP Festival, RedLine RedLine
/ref> has been the host for the main exhibition personally curated by Mark Sink.Lenscratch
/ref> In 2017, aside from their own exhibition space, Colorado Photographic Arts Center Colorado Photographic Arts Center Exhibitions
/ref> curated an exhibition in the RedLine Project Space gallery.

The Denver Salon

Throughout his career, Mark Sink founded many organizations that celebrate contemporary cutting edge photography. The Denver Salon was founded in 1992 and in 2014 transformed into the Denver Collage Club nomadically organizing exhibitions and showcasing contemporary art of living Colorado artists.Alto Gallery
/ref> The Denver Collage club is continuously an active participant of the Month of Photography events.

BIG PICTURE / Festival of Light

Another project of note within MoP is the BIG PICTURE, an international submission-based street art exchange. The submitted large scale photographs are wheat-pasted in the open air in over fifty cities worldwide, happening weekly during MoP.Zing Magazine
/ref> Month of Photography Denver a part of the international Festival of Light, a collaboration of photography festivals around the world, including: Denver, Paris, Portland, Houston, Aleppo, Buenos Aires, Derby, Mexico City, Montreal and Toronto and many others.Festival of Light
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Museum of Contemporary Art Denver

In 1996 Mark Sink, Dale Chisman, Marina Graves and Lawrence Argent partnered with a philanthropist Sue Cannon opened Denver's first

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

. Before the MCA moved to its permanent location in 2007, Mark Sink was the one of the original directors of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver until 2000 and remained as an original co-founding board member until 2005.Gallery Sink Homepage
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GALLERY SINK

Parallel to the conception of the MCA Denver, Mark Sink was running his own art gallery
GALLERY SINK
in the historic Denver Highland neighborhood opened in 1998. Some of the exhibited artists included

Alice Neel Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psyc ...

, Chris Makos,

Marie Cosindas Marie Cosindas (September 22, 1923 – May 25, 2017) was an American photographer. She was best known for her evocative still lifes and color portraits. Her use of color photography in her work distinguished her from other photographers in the 19 ...

Paul Outerbridge Paul Outerbridge, Jr. (August 15, 1896 – October 17, 1958) was an American photographer prominent for his early use and experiments in color photography. Outerbridge was a fashion and commercial photographer, an early pioneer and teacher of ...

Walter Chappell Walter Landon Chappell (June 8, 1925 – August 8, 2000) was an American photographer and poet, primarily known for his black and white photography of landscapes, nature, and the human body. Early life Chappell was born in Portland, Oregon in 1 ...

Winter Prather Winter Phillips Prather (1926-2005) was a commercial and fine art photographer who worked in Denver, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico from the 1940s to the 1970s. Early life and education Prather was born in Pontiac, Michigan on May 13, 1926 to Louise ...

Imogen Cunningham Imogen Cunningham (; April 12, 1883 – June 23, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to t ...

and many others.GALLERY SINK Archive
/ref> GALLERY SINK had great success for many years until the market crash in 2008, when Sink decided to focus on his own artistic practice, while moving his curatorial and art consulting practice to freelance and spend time to develop the Month of Photography. Mark Sink has been teaching, lecturing and reviewing photography since 1995 in Colorado and around the country. After taking the gallery to a nomadic style, Sink has been traveling for countless photo festivals and juried shows including FotoFest, CENTER, PhotoLucida, PhotoFence, Palm Springs Photo festival in NY and AZ.

Selected publications

Some of Mark Sink's most recent interviews and publications range from the local Denver Post on his Byers-Evans House Museum Retrospective,The Denver Post
/ref> Interviews with Colorado Public Radio on Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Denver Westword.Westword: Mark Sink
/ref> The international coverage of Month of Phrotography 2017 in L’Oeil De La Photographie,Eye of Photography
/ref> Seieties Magazine,Seities: Nude
/ref> and Wet Plate Day. His interviews on

The Andy Warhol Diaries ''The Andy Warhol Diaries'' is the dictated memoirs of the American artist Andy Warhol, posthumously published. It was edited by his frequent collaborator and long-time friend, Pat Hackett. Warner Books first published it in 1989 with an introdu ...

Warhol Stars
/ref> and his name can be found in The Andy Warhol Diaries Index,Warhol Diaries Index
/ref> as well as a retrospective of Warhol's work in Fort Collins, where Sink and Warhol first met. Sink's editorial work can be found in TIME,Time
/ref> Mother Jones,Mother Jones
/ref> and can be found through

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...

archive.Getty Images
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sink, Mark Photographers from Colorado American portrait photographers 1958 births Living people Artists from Colorado