Mark Francis Williams

Mark is an English artist who received his Masters in Painting and Drawing from Chelsea School of Art, London.

He is currently very much in love with the city Bucharest, Romania, in which he has lived for the past eight years.

"˜My practice is a direct response to living in Bucharest. I explore states of impermanence and the resulting aesthetic.

In the past few years newly erected shopping malls have popped up in the city enticing us in. They offer a hyper-real, super-beautiful sense of certainty, purpose and fixedness. Yet conversely, the static quality, artificiality and homogeneity of these dwellings leaves one feeling unnerved and disconnected from reality.

Meanwhile in the old city, buildings crumble, facades crack and deterioration is pervasive. Nothing stands still. As the aging architecture submits to the elements it fashions a genuine beauty. This feels honest, and the patterns of cracks and eroding surfaces act as a metaphor, mirroring what it is to exist, to experience and to be temporal.

Thus my practice is centered on the passing of time, on instability and change. It is an attempt to respond to the transient present rather than to conjure up some notion of immortality. This philosophy is carried th...

Exeter School of Art and Design, England BA Fine Art - 1st Class

Chelsea School of Art and Design, London, England Masters Fine Art