Artist's
Statement: I do visual philosophy in slang.
I make installations
of sequential paintings, forming huge, walk-in "comic pages," as well as groups of
paintings including bold lettering and images. My paintings
are fashioned of drips of enamel with meticulously painted
outlines, shadows and highlights created using lettering, comic
art and painting techniques. Thus, near-at-hand, the motifs
appear to be abstract swirls of lines, yet transform into
fluidly-drawn sequences of representational images when viewed
at a distance. I
am after an aggressively mongrel art, using blue-collar
technical skills to energize and criticize fine art, while also
criticizing, honoring, and expanding the vernacular arts which
inspire me.
Mark Staff Brandl
was born in 1955 near Chicago, where he lived for
many years. He has lived primarily in Switzerland
since 1988. He studied art, art history, literature
and literary theory at the University of Illinois,
Illinois State University, Columbia Pac University, and received his Ph.D. in Art
History magna cum
laude from the University of Zurich in 2011.
He is an associate professor of art history and
painting at the Kunstschule Liechtenstein. Brandl is
active internationally as an artist since 1980, has
won various awards, had many publications and had
numerous exhibitions. His shows include galleries and
museums in the US, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Egypt,
the Caribbean; specific cities include Paris, Moscow,
Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. As a critic, he is
a contributor to London’s The Art Book, Sharkforum
on-line, a podcaster for Bad at Sports, is Theory
Editor for Chicago's Proximity magazine and is a
Contributing Editor for New York’s Art in America. He
is also the curator of The Collapsible Kunsthalle.
Works of his have been acquired by the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in
London, The Whitney Museum in New York, the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago, the St. Gallen Art
Museum, The Thurgau Museum of Fine Art, The E.T.H.
Graphic Collection in Zurich, The Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the International
Museum of Cartoon Art, the Art Museum Olten and
others.
in
Deutsch:
Mark Staff Brandl kam 1955 in der
Nähe von Chicago zur Welt und hat lange Zeit dort
gelebt. Seit 1988 ist er in der Schweiz ansässig;
wohnt seit 7 Jahren in Trogen AR und unterrichtet an
der Kunstschule Liechtenstein. Seine Ausbildung in
Kunst, Kunstgeschichte und Literaturtheorie machte er
an der University of Illinois, Illinois State
University, Columbia Pacific University
und wurde am 20. Mai 2011 magna cum laude an der
Universität Zürich in der Geschichte der
Kunst zur Doktor promoviert. Brandl ist international
seit 1980 als Künstler tätig, hat
verschiedene Auszeichnungen erhalten und ist mit
zahlreichen Publikationen und Ausstellungen an die
Öffentlichkeit getreten. Seine
künstlerischen Arbeiten wurden unter anderem von
Galerien und Museen in der Schweiz, Deutschland,
Italien, Ägypten, der Karibik sowie in
Städten wie Paris, Moskau, Chicago, Los Angeles
oder New York gezeigt. Als Kunstkritiker schreibt er
regelmässig für die The Art Book (London),
Sharkforum (online), Proximity (Chicago, Theory
Editor), Bad at Sports (international,podcasts) und
Art in America (New York), bei denen er Corresponding
Editor ist. Er ist auch Kurator der Collapsible
Kunsthalle. Einige seiner Werke wurden auch vom Museum
of Modern Art in New York, dem Whitney Museum in New
York, dem Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, dem
Victoria und Albert Museum in London, dem Thurgauer
Kunstmuseum, dem Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, The Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the International
Museum of Cartoon Art, der Graphischen Sammlung der
ETH Zürich und anderen aufgenommen.
