M a r k  P e t e r s e n  -  R e c e n t  W o r k s

No.4 Studio is pleased to announce a solo show of paintings by Oakland, California-based Mark Petersen. Petersen has occupied No.4 Studio as artist-in-residence, completing the work for his September exhibition which will include works made in 2014 and 2015.

Mark Petersen uses handmade, makeshift tools to drag and trowel acrylic paint across his surfaces, both canvas and paper. From this process, the “Paths” paintings result: producing circular forms and flowing rounded trails of paint. Other works are the records of more immediate, quick gestures and marks. Petersen’s work is about the act, the record of the mark, physicality and movement – both his own and the viewer’s. As such, it can be placed in the context and legacy of Abstract Expressionism, Nouveau Réalisme, Zen ink drawings, and Richard Serra.

Petersen’s work finds its balance at the space between playfulness and refinement of form and gesture over time. The work becomes a visual reminder of human errors that make our existence and movements unique and relatable.  His quirky, repurposed painting tools are further evidence of Petersen’s relationship to this aspect of contemporary abstraction and “provisional painting.”

Petersen was born in 1953 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and received his BFA from the University of Utah in 1975.  He did graduate studies there as well, with V. Douglas Snow and Robert S. Olpin. In 1971, Petersen met Shunryu Suzuki, the Zen Buddhist teacher and founder of San Francisco Zen Center, and spent a year in Japan in 1983.  Petersen moved to the Bay Area in 1989.  He has shown his work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London and the Grand Palais, Paris. A solo exhibition of his work was presented in 2014 at Le Kube, a space owned by Roman Said, in Oakland, CA.

On view 11 September to 4 October 2015.

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