MARK FRANCIS

Mark Francis’ ongoing fascination with the ‘mysteries of the universe’ and in particular sound recordings provides a point of departure in the studio. An invisible energy which powers all cosmic activity including our very own existence is given a form, colour and structure in these new, hypnotic paintings.

‘As a starting point, I visualise the universe is made up of a loosely structured grid where order and chaos can reside. As the work develops, this quickly gets lost or moves aside in the painting process. I like to visualise the paintings as the photographic moment capturing the birth and death of invisible energy’.

Mark Francis

b.1962, Newtownards, Northern Ireland. Lives and works in London

Over the past thirty years, Mark Francis has made paintings of singular optical intensity—powerful, apparently abstract combinations of concentrated patterning and stark colour contrasts that are in fact principally based on what the unaided human eye lacks the power to see. His work draws significantly on discoveries about the form and substance of reality that result from technologically enhanced vision. An enduring fascination, for instance, has been the visual worlds made accessible by the matter-penetrating gaze of electron microscopes: the dark, scattered, interconnecting orbs or the variously taut and slack lines of his paintings have drawn their strange forms from imagery of the miniature universe, the realm of molecular structure and cellular association out of which all life is assembled.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Palazzo Collicola Spoleto, Italy (2022); White Light, Kerlin Gallery (2019); There is Geometry in the Humming of the Strings ..., Peninsula Arts Gallery, Plymouth University, UK (2016); Arena, Abbot Hall Gallery, UK (2010) Pulse, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Dublin, (2008), and Elements, Milton Keynes Gallery, UK (2000).

Selected group exhibitions include Abstract Painting Now!, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (both 2017); Strukturen Projekt, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Germany, (2014): Lets Party For A Piece Of Art, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany; Creating the New Century – Contemporary Art from the Dicke Collection, Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art (FCMOCA), Fort Collins, CO, USA; LITOS GRAFERA, Kunst Centret Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark, (all 2011); Cream – Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland, (both 2010); What lies beneath the surface, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, (2008); Die Kunst zu sammeln, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany, (2007).

Francis’ work is represented in the collections of The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; TATE, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; Museum of Modern Art, Miami; The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and in private and corporate collections worldwide.