Mark M Whelan

An Irish Futurist.

While my art is primarily focused on multi-media portraits and figurative pictures, my aim is not to simply represent a beautiful image of a person or an individual in a futuristic context. Instead, I see it as an ongoing exploration of the process of how art is created, particularly in relation to its structure, composition, color, and technique.

Like many figurative painters of my generation, I find it impossible to escape the looming shadows of artists like Francisco Goya, Francis Bacon, and Hieronymus Bosch. Their influence has dominated the figurative world, with their paintings being evocative, emotional, and steeped in existential angst and anticipation of an uncertain future. However, I am striving to carve out my futuristic path into the light, moving away from these titans of the art world. My work seeks to transcend the discipline of representational art and the gestural expressionism we often associate with the figurative paintings of Bacon.

University of Oxford
INSEAD
Stanford University
University of Nottingham

Amant, Brooklyn, New York
Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris
Kunsthalle Basel
Art Basel, Miami
Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe
Venice Biennale 2015