Mark Harris, PreludiumArts
Printing is an ancient creative act, often simple and signatory. Printmaking is for me a way of mapping developmental and evolutionary non-verbal communications, a visual parallel to poetry, recited or read.
In making prints I identify in spirit with the cave dweller whose hand print is pressed and lifted, and remains a sign and symbol of presence.
My primary interest is in relief printing - using a variety of materials whose surfaces are marked, inked and impressed on paper.
The graphic power possible in relief printing challenges me both as an artist and as a printer. I am interested in keeping alive the power of the ancient desire to make direct graphic impressions and at the same time the desire to use the increasingly subtle forms by which marks can be made. Printmaking is a source of powerful images to further social and political agendas, and I am committed to exploring this aspect of printmaking.”
Mark Harris is an artist – printmaker. His primary interest is in relief printing - using a variety of materials whose surfaces are marked, inked and impressed on paper.
He studied watercolor technique with Carol Minarick and has a studio in Milton, Delaware. In 2011-12 he was a member of the Printmakers Workshop, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth. He is currently a member of the White Line Printmaking Guild in Lewes, Delaware. He has exhibited at the Rehoboth Art League and other local and regional galleries and in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was Artist in Residence at the Ecole Nationale des Arts, Haiti in 2014, and at the Arquetopia Foundation, Puebla, Mexico in 2018 and 2021. His 2021 hand made book, “Taisez-Vous!” has been acquired by The Maryland Institute College of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, St. Mary’s College, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. His 2020 hand made books, “The Book of Numbers” has been acquired by the Delaware Art Museum. He was a 2022 Fellow at the Colloquium of the Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life (APRIL).
Exhibitions:
Three Generations, Gallery 20, Newark, DE, 1985, watercolors.
Printmakers Exhibition: Angelucci’s Gallery, Milton, DE, 2012, relief prints and etchings
Printmakers Showcase, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth, DE, 2012, relief prints, monoprints, etchings.
Members Show, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth, DE, 2013, relief print.
Artist and Student Printmakers Show, Haitian-American Institute, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 2014
Courage UnMasked, Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth, DE, art mask constructed of printed materials, 2015
Members Fine Arts Show, Rehoboth Art League Route 9 Campus, relief print, 2015
Biennial Juried Art Show, Rehoboth Art League, 2016, linocut.
Members Fine Arts Show, Rehoboth Art League, 2016, relief print
“Abstracts,” featured artist, Rehoboth Art League, 2016
Members Fine Arts Show, Rehoboth Art League, 2017, relief print.
Members Show, Biggs Museum, Dover, 2018, mixed media.
Solo Exhibition, “Most Wanted,” relief prints, mono prints, installations, Rehoboth Art League, 2019
“Print and Paper”, AnneMarie Sculpture Garden and Gallery, Solomon, Maryland 2021, mixed media.
“Remembering and Numbering” An exhibition and meditation on the deaths from Covid-19, 2020, Two separate exhibits, the first remembering 500,000 deaths in the US, the second 600,000 deaths, St. Peter’s Church, Lewes, Delaware.
“A Thousand Thousand,” An installation of 20 banners, representing 1 Million Covid Deaths., at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Lewes, and the Rt. 9 Library and Innovation Center, New Castle, DE.“Faces”, Group exhibition, relief print Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, 2019
“Most Wanted,” Solo Show, Rehoboth Art League, 2019
“Naming and Remembering Covid Deaths” (1), Installation of art objects, prints, silkscreen, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, April 2020.
“Naming and Remembering Covid Deaths” (2) installation of art objects, prints, silkscreens, with additional work by Roy Fitzgerald, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, February, 2021.
“Remembrance of a Bather,” Memebers Fine Arts Show, Rehoboth Art League, 2021, best in show.
“Haitian Madonna, “Print and Paper,” AnneMarie Sculpture Garden and Gallery, Solomon, Maryland, 2021
“Tower of Incomplete Ideas,” installation constructed of printed papers, Members Fine Arts Show, Rehoboth Art League, 2022
Four White Line prints, Delaware White Line Printmakers Guild exhibit, Lewes Public Library, 2023
Art acquired by institutions:
“Taisez-Vous,” handmade book with linocut plates, 2022, acquired by the Maryland Institute College of Art 2022, and St. Mary’s University, Maryland 2022.
“Taisez-Vous,” handmade book with linocut plates, acquired by the Delaware Art Museum, 2022
“Book of Numbers, Vol. 1 and 2,” handmade book numbering the world’s and the United States covid deaths as of All Saints Day, acquired by the Delaware Art Museum, 2022
“One Million Dead: A thousand thousand” an installation of 20 rice paper banners, 7.5x1.25 ft., with imprints of one thousand “M”s, “M” being the Roman Numeral for one thousand. To commemorate the time when Covid deaths in the United States reaches the one million mark. Installed at the Route 9 Library and Innovation Center, New Castle, De., and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Parish House, Lewes, De. April - June 2022.
Residencies:
Artist in Residence at Ecole Nationale des Arts, Port au Prince, Haiti, October- November, 2014.
Residency, Arquetopia Foundation, Puebla, Mexico, September – October 2018.
Residency, Arquetopia Foundation, Puebla, Mexico, September - October, 2021
The APRIL (Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life) Colloquium, New York, summer 2022
The Arquetopia Honors Alumni Residence Program, Puebla, Mexico, a 18 month program. It is aimed to expand artistic and design practices by emphasizing the difference between artistic intention and artistic agency while tackling larger questions such as “sustainability,” “embodiment,” “nature/natural,” as well as the arts and their capacity to perform and occupy bodies. 2023-4