Mark Manders

Mark Manders (born 1968 in Volkel) is a Dutch artist, currently living and working in Ronse, Belgium. He is probably best known for his large bronze figures that look like rough-hewn, wet or peeling clay. Typical of his work is also the arrangement of random objects, such as tables, chairs, light bulbs, blankets and dead animals.

Biography Working as a graphic designer in his late teens, Manders studied at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem (now ArtEZ Academy of Art & Design) from 1988 to 1992. During his studies, his fascination for design and language, and particularly poetry, further developed into a visual language of his own, where words were substituted by objects. Looking for an affordable larger studio, Manders emigrated to Belgium in 2007, where he found an abandoned small station building in Ronse.

Manders is represented by Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City & Los Angeles and Gallery Koyanagi in Tokyo.

Work Since 1986 Manders has been making Self-portrait as a building.

The fictional building represents a fictional artist, "Mark Manders", an alter-ego distinct from the artist Mark Manders. Each of his exhibitions includes an evolving floor plan of the self-portrait building along with various art works.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibition Manders solo show Parallel Occurrences / Documented Assignments travelled from the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2010) to the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen (2011), Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2011) and Dallas Museum of Art (2012). Another show, The Absence of Mark Manders, toured from Kunstverein Hannover (2007) to Kunsthall Bergen (2008), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2008) and Kunsthaus Zürich (2009).

Group exhibitions Amongst many others exhibitions, Manders work has featured in numerous exhibitions around the world, including

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2019) Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018) Museu Berardo in Lisbon (2018) MARTa Herford (2017) Wiels in Brussels (2017) Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar (2016) Kunstmuseum Bonn (2016) Louvre in Paris (2015) S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2015) Guggenheim Museum in New York (2015) Palais de Tokyo in Paris (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)

Awards Manders work has been awarded with numerous prizes, including the Dr. A.H Heineken Prize for Art in 2010, the Philip Morris Art Prize in 2002, the Vordemberge-Gildewart Award, Switzerland in 2000, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per l'Arte in Italy in 1994, the Touche Prize, The Netherlands, also in 1994, and both the Prix de Rome and the Prix Nouvelles Images in The in 1992.

Collections

Public collections Manders' work is held in numerous public collections around the world, including: Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (JP), Art Gallery of Ontario (CA), Art Institute of Chicago (US), Bonnefantenmuseum (NL), Carnegie Museum of Art (US), Centraal Museum (NL), Collezione Maramotti (IT), Dallas Museum of Art (US), David Roberts Art Foundation (GB), The Donum Estate(US), Domus Collection (CN), Fondation Louis Vuitton (FR), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (IT), FRAC Bourgogne (FR), Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (IT), Guggenheim Museum (US), Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park (NO), Hammer Museum (US), Henry Art Gallery (US), Hudson Valley for Contemporary Art(US), IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IE), Julia Stoschek Collection (DE), Kunsthaus Zürich (CH), Kunstmuseum Bonn (DE), Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall(SE), M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art (BE), Moderna Museet (SE), Museum of Contemporary Art (US), MOT, Museum of Contemporary Art (JP), MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York (US), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (NL), Museum of Contemporary Art Santiago de Compostela (ES), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (US), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (US), Museum Hedendaagse Kunst De Domijnen(NL), Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem (NL), Museum Voorlinden (NL), Mu.ZEE (BE), National Gallery of Art Washington D.C (US), Noordbrabants Museum 's Hertogenbosch (NL), Olbricht Collection (DE), Over Holland Collection (NL), PAMM, Perez Art Museum (US), Philadelphia Museum of Art (US), Pinnell Collection, Dallas (US), Pinakothek der Moderne (DE), Rabobank Collection (NL), Rubell Museum (US), Sammlung Goetz (DE), S.M.A.K., Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (BE), SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (US), Stedelijk Museum (NL), Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal (NL), Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum (NL), The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse (US), The Menil Collection (US), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (US), Walker Art Center (US).

Work in the public domain

In 2019 Public Art Fund commissioned Mark Manders to create a large public sculpture for the Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park, New York. In 2017 Manders created two large sculptures for Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2017) and for the Rokin Square in Amsterdam (2017).