Mark Hamilton, a British artist based in Leipzig, concerns himself with material transformations and ideological shifts. As these take place in society at large as well as in art, he refers to phenomena of art history as well as social politics. The artist takes existing artefacts, deconstructs and analyses them and introduces them into new contexts, e.g. a modular typeface system which is associated with the avant-garde artist Alexander Rodshenko. Or he combines elements of pop art with the aesthetic of constructivist collages and punk rock flyers in order to create a ›portrait‹ of the philosopher Slavoj Zizek. In many of his works, Hamilton quotes the iconography of minimalism, the authority of which he undermines with small, deliberate flaws or the material of the work itself, in antithesis to the original. His work thus contains a plethora of references. Mark Hamilton takes inspiration from such fields as film,literature, philosophy, pop music and skateboarding culture. These references arise not least from his own biography and his personal experiences.
Mark Hamilton is producing new work for his presentation in the context of the ROOM 107 exhibition series. His projects are often closely connected to the specific context of the particular venue of exhibition.
Mark Hamilton was born in 1968 in Plymouth, England. Previous solo exhibitions include Metal Box at Galerie b2 in Leipzig (2007) and Echoplex, Artists Space, New York (2006). He has taken part in group exhibitions at Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, Glue in Berlin, The Bauhaus, Dessau, IKON gallery in Birmingham and The Modern Institute, Glasgow.
