Mark Essen

2 March – 13 April 2016

Mark Essen is the third of this year’s Micro Residency artists. Mark works across various mediums including ceramics, print, video, performance, carved and painted granite and video.

Constantly inconsistent within his use of materials and mediums, he arranges ugly things for beautiful people. Economics, materials, rituals, the ancient and the contemporary are fragments which inform and influence his practice.

Mark Essen graduated with a BA in Fine Art at Birmingham City University in 2007 received an MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2014.

Recent exhibitions include: Local Objects, IKEYAZHANG, curated by Rita Selvaggio, Milan, Italy, 2016; House of Ferment and The Village Table, Hauser and Wirth, Bruton, Somerset, 2016; Rough music, Cass Sculpture foundation, Goodwood; . …and the soft ground in the garden was also a constellation, Lychee One, London, UK; Faux Sho, It´s All Tropical, Assembly House, Leeds, 2015; A Union of Voices, Horatio Jr. London, UK, Cassius Clay, Marcelle Joseph Projects, Hatton Gardens, London, UK, 2014; See it this, Forde, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014 and in 2013 was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Spike Island, Bristol & ICA, London, UK. Mark is a founding member of the studio and gallery, Grand Union, Birmingham.

Artist website: http://www.markessen.org/

Micro Residencies

The Micro Residency programme is an annual open-submission residency opportunity for artists. It is primarily research based and is set up to foster experimentation, innovation and to support artists in the development of new work. Four six-week residencies are selected by a panel of invited arts professionals.

The selectors for this year are: Stacy Boldrick (Curator of Research at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh), Paul Pieroni (Curator at SPACE, London) and Kate Davis (artist).

Selected artists receive: