Mark Manders
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.
Born in 1968 in Volkel, The Netherlands, Manders currently lives and works in Ronse, Belgium. Winner of the 2002 Philip Morris Art Prize, Manders also received the prestigious Dr. A.H Heineken Prize for Art in 2010.
In 2010, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles opened a major retrospective of his work entitled Parallel Occurrences / Documented Assignments, which later traveled to the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas through 2012. Other significant solo presentations include Mark Manders: Cose in corso at Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy (2014), Mark Manders at Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea in Santiago de Compostel, Spain (2014), Les études d’ombres at Carré d'Art - Musée d’art contemporain in Nîmes, France (2012), Revisions: Mark Manders at Carrillo Gil Museum of Art in Mexico City (2011),
Two Interconnected Houses at La Casa Luis Barragân in Mexico City, Mexico, and The Absence of Mark Manders, which opened at Kunstverein Hannover in Germany in 2007, and traveled to S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium, Kunsthaus Zurich, and to Bergen Kunsthall in Norway through 2009. The artist’s work has also been exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Pinakothek der Modern in Munich, among others.
Manders participated in group exhibitions at Knokke in Belgium (2022), Musée Zadkine in Paris (2021), Cultuurcentrum Mechelen in Belgium (2021), Collezione Maramotti in Italy (2021), Louvre in Paris (2015), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2015), Guggenheim Museum in New York (2015), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2014), Bonnefantenmuseum 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 was commissioned by the Public Art Fund to create a large sculpture for Doris C. Freedman Plaza in New York’s Central Park.
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.
-
The Absence of Mark Manders
Woning Van Wassenhove, Belgium September 20 - December 17, 2023 -
Mark Manders: Writing Skiapod
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Los Angeles February 11 - April 8, 2023 -
IRL
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York September 9 - October 23, 2021 -
Mark Manders: The Absence of Mark Manders
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan March 30 - June 30, 2021 -
MICHAËL BORREMANS & MARK MANDERS: Double Silence
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan September 19, 2020 - February 28, 2021 -
THE RETURN OF THE REAL
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York July 14 - August 28, 2020 -
Mark Manders: Silent Studio
Kistefos Museum, Norway June 26, 2020 - December 31, 2022 -
MARK MANDERS: THE ABSENCE OF MARK MANDERS
BONNEFANTEN, MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS February 4 - August 23, 2020 -
Mark Manders: Surrounds
Museum of Modern Art, New York October 21, 2019 - January 4, 2020 -
Mark Manders: Writing Yellow
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York April 13 - May 24, 2019“I wanted to be a writer, but I became more fascinated with objects—how they relate to language and thinking. Instead of writing with words, I started to write with objects....Read more -
MARK MANDERS: TILTED HEAD
Public Art Fund, DORIS C. FREEDMAN PLAZA, CENTRAL PARK March 6 - September 1, 2019 -
Mark Manders: Two Immovable Heads
Rokin Plaza, Amsterdam July 1, 2018 - July 1, 2040 -
Mark Manders
Parcours, Art Basel 2018 June 11 - 17, 2018 -
MARK MANDERS: SEPTEMBER ROOM (ROOM WITH TWO RECLINING FIGURES AND COMPOSITION WITH LONG VERTICALS)
MINNEAPOLIS SCULPTURE GARDEN, WALKER ART CENTER September 1, 2017 - June 1, 2020 -
Mark Manders: The Absent Museum
WIELS, Belgium April 20 - September 13, 2017 -
Mark Manders
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York October 29 - December 19, 2015Under a table you have the possibility to test your own absence. The realization that life is taking its course, even without you, is an intense human experience; it shows...Read more -
The Bigger Picture
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York June 12 - August 1, 2014 -
Mark Manders: Acolyte Frena
De Vleeshal, Netherlands January 19 - March 23, 2014 -
Between the Lines
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York January 9 - February 8, 2014 -
MARK MANDERS: ROOM WITH BROKEN SENTENCE
DUTCH PAVILION, 55TH VENICE BIENNALE June 1 - November 24, 2013 -
MARK MANDERS
Carré d’Art, Nimes February 10 - March 13, 2012 -
Mark Manders
ADAA: THE ART SHOW 2011 February 27 - March 2, 2011 -
MARK MANDERS: PARALLEL OCCURENCES / DOCUMENTED ASSIGNMENTS
HAMMER MUSEUM AT UCLA, LOS ANGELES September 25, 2010 - January 2, 2011 -
Mark Manders
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York October 30 - December 19, 2009 -
SUMMER SHOW 2009
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York June 25 - July 31, 2009 -
THE ABSENCE OF MARK MANDERS
Kunstverein Hannover October 16 - November 25, 2007 -
Mark Manders
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York February 17 - March 24, 2007 -
MARK MANDERS: ISOLATED ROOMS
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO AND RENAISSANCE SOCIETY, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO September 14 - November 2, 2003 -
MARK MANDERS
DOCUMENTA 11, KASSEL, GERMANY June 1 - September 1, 2002
-
Mark Manders: All Words and One
2023Paperback, 208 pages pagesRead more
Publisher: Roma Publishers
Dimensions: 21 x 28 cm -
Mark Manders: Rokin Fountain
Mark Manders, Maria Barnas, 2017 Read more -
Mark Manders: Cose in corso
Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, 2014Hardcover, 126 pages pagesRead more
Publisher: Roma Publications, Amsterdam
Dimensions: 22 x 29 cm -
Mark Manders: Room with Broken Sentence
Dutch Pavilion - 55th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia Lorenzo Benedetti, Birgit Donker, Mark Manders, 2013Softcover, 176 pages pagesRead more
Publisher: Roma Publications, Amsterdam
Dimensions: 21 x 27 cm -
Mark Manders: The Absence of Mark Manders
2008 Read more -
Mark Manders: Isolated Rooms
2006Hardcover, 239 pagesRead more
Publisher: Roma
ISBN: 0300116896
Dimensions: 1 x 7.4 x 10.1 inches -
Mark Manders: Short Sad Thoughts
2005 Read more -
Mark Manders: Singing Sailors
2003 Read more -
Mark Manders: Several Drawings on Top of Each Other
2002 Read more