Mark Mullin

Sessional Instructor, Drawing

“My life as a professional artist is a critical process comprised of experimentations and discoveries, unforseen questions and unexpected answers. My life as an eductator is to continuously impart these experiences to my students as they work towards constructing their own unique path.”

Mark Mullin
peripheral tricks, 2015, oil on canvas, 72" x 72"
peripheral tricks, 2015, oil on canvas, 72" x 72"

Born in Edmonton, Canada, Mark Mullin has taught at various academic institutions in Canada. He has exhibited across North America and Europe. His work investigates how abstract painting can perform as a type of playful narrative of contradiction and subversion. It is a dialogue whose visual vocabulary is comprised of borrowed bits and parts – a convergence of “ insistent debris” where the decorative and minimal negotiate with the brash and grotesque. What results are paintings that resonate like improvised abstract theatre.

Mark has been a member of ACAD's faculty since 2003.

Education

MFA Studio Arts, Department of Painting and Drawing, Concordia University, Montréal, QC, 1999

Guest Student, Printmaking Department, Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Hamburg, Germany, 1994

BFA with Distinction, Department of Fine Art and Design, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, 1994

Residencies

Painting’s Edge,  Idyllwild Arts, Idyllwild, CA. U.S.A., 2008

Cooper Union School of Art Summer Residency, New York, U.S.A., 2005

Slo' Mo' - The Banff Centre for the Arts, October 22 - December 7, 2001

Selected Professional Activity

Selected Solo Exhibitions

sticks and stones, Paul Kuhn Gallery Calgary, AB, 2017

insistent debris, Paul Kuhn Gallery, Calgary, AB, 2015

dismantling act, Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON,  2015

an unfolding sense of order, Art Gallery of Calgary, Calgary, AB, 2007

catalytic mix, Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2005

turbulent flow, State Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 2003 

Selected Group Exhibitions

75 Works on Paper, BEERS London, London, UK, 2017

New to You- Contemporary acquisitions, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB, 2016

Made in Calgary – the 2000’s, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB, 2014

We Tell Ourselves Stories, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary. AB, 2012

New Prints 2012/Winter -  International Print Center New York,  IPCNY, New York, NY, USA, 2012

softcore Hard Edge, East and Peggy Phelps Gallery, Claremont, CA, U.S.A., 2011

Selected Publications

2015

Paint and Line to Plain: Mark Mullin – Re-Connecting the Dots to the Modernist Legacy,  catalogue essay by Jeffrey Spalding for  solo exhibition “dismantling act” Michael Gibson Gallery,

2011

…Pas tout a fait… essay by Lon Dubinsky, Stewart Hall Gallery.

2010

Canadian Art, “Close Up” by Chris Cran, Summer issue. 

2008

Carte Blanche, Vol. 2: Painting. Survey of Painting in Canada.  Forward by Jane Urquhart and Clint Roenisch. Magenta Foundation.

Selected Awards

Canada Council for the Arts Production Grant

Alberta Foundation for the Arts Visual Arts Project Grant

Alberta Creative Initiative Development Grant – AFA and Canada Council for the Arts

Western Canadian Finalist RBC New Canadian Painting Competition