This template features the work of Mark Schoening.
Ever the intrepid explorer, Mark Schoening’s work exists at the
frontier where information fragments and explodes into abstract form. The artist
operates as a documentarian, creating sculptures and multi-layered paintings
investigating the gestation and dissemination of information. The inception of a
single quiet thought is added to and built on until it becomes a frenzied barrage of
information. Working with acrylic, latex, spray paint, ink, silkscreen and resin, the
artist creates a three-dimensional like space populated by a complex network of
abstract forms. Simple geometric forms and lines create architectural backdrops
from which emerge fictional landscapes.
In his work, Schoening confronts contemporary high-speed urban existence,
documenting society’s ravenous appetite for content which, when combined with a
steady onslaught of advertising, results in a desensitized population accustomed to
immediately summoning information and, just as quickly, discarding or forgetting it.
The artist draws a parallel between writhing abstracted forms suspended in space
and the anxious cycle of information consumption. As the eye sinks into the depth
of the composition, one seeks to grasp the space occupied by these abstract forms.
Each painting embodies a space in a constant state of flux through which
information is funneled and dispersed, as epitomized in Contained, 2012.
In Recordings of a Lone Infantryman, Mark Schoening introduces sculpture for the
first time. As much as Schoening’s paintings occupy a two-dimensional realm of
dizzyingly violent clashes, his sculptures exist at the other end of the visual
spectrum, revealing a contemplative and pared-down approach. The color-saturated
objects seem to be a departure from the concepts explored in Schoening’s paintings
when, in fact, they are its visual dissection. These building blocks embody the
potential energy that exists at the beginning stages of the painted works. Small
objects are made in multiples, reflecting little geometric bytes of colorful information,
which draw the eye into an infinite and repetitive visual loop.
Mark Schoening (b. 1980, Minneapolis, MN) received his BFA from the
Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 2006. Mark’s work has been exhibited in
Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Copenhagen, including the Decordova
Museum’s 2008 Annual. He has been a featured artist in New American Paintings and
his work has appeared in Beautiful/Decay, Flaunt, and the Huffington Post.
