Mark Literski

I begin my paintings with multiple images, usually photos or drawings, of my subjects. My aim is to simplify, to try to capture the spirit of the subject. As a painting evolves, the final image is usually a surprise to me. The viewer can see layers of gestural marks and how paint has been built up and scraped away as a work developed. Often there are accidents along the way which I’ve learned to leave alone and incorporate into the painting. I want viewers to find my work interesting and to show them familiar things in a way they haven’t seen them. I agree with the artist Robert Henri who felt that the artist should “be of some use in the world by adding to the sum total of beauty in it.”

Fine Arts Education
• Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1997-2000
Other Education
• Master of Business Administration, University of Wisconsin, 1986
• Bachelor of Arts, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 1981

• Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI, 2016 Fall Group Show
• Minnesota State Fair 2013 Honorable Mention Award, Painting
• Grand Hand Gallery, St. Paul, MN, July 2010 Landscape group show
• Grand Hand Gallery, St. Paul, MN, July 2006 show with Jeremy Newman “New Visions”
• Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI, 2005, show with Yvette Smith, “Progression of Patterns”
• Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI, 2003 solo show “Familiar Surroundings”
• The Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND, 2002, solo show “Take a Seat”
• Selections in group exhibitions at Center for the Visual Arts, Wausau, WI 1999, 2000, 2001
• Minneapolis College of Art and Design Juried Fine Art Exhibitions, 1998, 1999, 2000