Mark Chadwick

T h e L l o y d G i l l G a l l e r y

Contemporary Fine Art

Showcasing Local, National & International Artists

Lee House

13 Beaconsfield Road

Weston-Super-Mare

North Somerset

BS23 1YE

United Kingdom

Mon - Sat 10.00am - 4.30pm

+44(0)1934 623449

M a r k C h a d w i c k

markchadwickart@hotmail.co.uk

www.markchadwick.co.uk

Mark's art practice is concerned by the use of machines in the production of an artwork. With our culture becoming more and more engaged with new technologies, Mark's work questions the implications of handing over control of an artwork to a mechanical device. Through experimentation with using a number of crude technological devices and minimising his interaction with the decision making process. Mark's work investigates the status of the artist and what the artwork actually is. With the actions of any machine the result of human intention, Mark uses machines to allow chance to enter the creative process, exploring ideas surrounding authorship, consciousness and interaction. The systems Mark sets up incorporating the use of a machine either allows his tools to create their marks and record its action in a physical way on to the canvas, or manipulates the surface to which the paint is applied. Mark's work is also concerned with painting process as the performance aspect of the production of an artwork, exploring the relationship forged between materials, aesthetics and perception across cultures. Mark uses machines/technology and natural forces to allow paintings to make themselves in order to further remove the hand of the artist. Once set in motion Mark often removes himself from the studio and painting process.

In his current series of fluid paintings, the paint is manipulated in a number of different ways each driven by ideas surrounding process, materiality and chance encounters. The unique display of forms and colours are brought together by the artist's hand but manipulated though the use of machines or natures forces. Some paintings are spun or shaken while others rely upon reactions between materials or gravity to allow the painting to almost form itself. The paintings are built up of many layers of paint, each creating it's own flowing abstract surface left open to interpretation by the viewer.