About Mark

 

Mark Spurgeon is an interdisciplinary artist working in Columbus, Ohio. His work encompasses nearly 30 years as a visual artist and performing musician.

Throughout his parallel creative practices, Mark explores themes concerning the global climate crisis, social justice, and the transitory nature of our existence. His vibrantly-colored paintings center abstracted forms and naturalistic, sometimes symbolic imagery. Intrepid overpainting and pentimento exemplify this work, and reveal harmonic explorations, grace notes, and blink-and-you-missed-it representations, hinting at a melody, or a shared rhythm of an improvised passage of music.

A multi-instrumentalist, Mark leads his own ensembles, and collaborates with other musicians on stage and in studio. Among the commonalities are a rigorous engagement with the creative process, and a desire to retain the artifacts- a fossil record, serving to unearth veins for visual and aural exploration, and cross-fertilization.

His work has been recognized in The New York Times Magazine, SPIN, and No Depression.  

Mark holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from The Ohio State University.