Mark Carr-Multimedia Artist
Work held in public/private collections
National Gallery of Australia
Palestinian Mission - London, UK
Ferens Art Gallery – Hull, UK
Work held in private collections in New York, Australia and throughout the UK
National awards and prizes
2017 Commendation Award, Nottingham City Arts and The Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham
1995 Northern Arts Awards for Artists
1987 Ferens Art Gallery Purchase Prize
1983 Sunderland Polytechnic Travelling Scholarship
Exhibitions
Solo
2022 - I AM SOMEBODY, Assembly House (Newcastle Arts Centre), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2021 - THE SCREAM, Live performance, Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2019 - CUP OF LIFE, Biscuit Tin Studios Gallery, Newcastle, UK
2018 - CUP OF LIFE, Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery, Nuneaton, UK
2018 - CUP OF LIFE, The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford, UK
2017 - CORRUPTION TO REDEMPTION, The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (live audio visual performance)
2015 - BLURRED, Three Tanners Bank North Shields, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2013 - SUPPRESSION, Rook Lane Arts, Frome, UK
2012 - FEAR and LOATHING, 67B Gallery, Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
1993 - SERIOUS MEN, High-Street Billboard and School Hall, Sacriston, UK
1990 - ‘1989’, Southwark College Gallery, London
1989 - PORTRAITS & PAINTINGS , Tricycle Gallery ,London
1988 - ‘1987’, Casson gallery, Eastbourne, UK
1985 - MEN, Playhouse Gallery – Newcastle, UK
Selected Group Shows
2022 Animate - Australian Animation Film Festival
2020/21 Baltic Open 2020, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
2020 Haus A Rest Zine Issue 7 - Mental Health (on line portal)
2020 Art of Caring, St Georges Hospital, London
2019 Art of Caring, St Georges Hospital, London
2018 Is the spectacle that the sun never sets, System Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2018 Just Experimenting (playing with sexual edge of film), Centre for Sex and Culture, San Francisco, USA
2018 'Traumascapes & Landscapes of the Interior', IMH Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK
2018 Art of Caring, St Georges Hospital, London
2017 Art of Caring Exhibition 2017, The Conference Centre Gallery, St Pancras Hospital, London
2017 Art for the Heart, Parliament House, Melbourne, Australia
2017 The Art of Caring, St George's Hospital in Tooting, London
2017 Middlesbrough Art Weekender, Middlesbrough, UK
2017 Here and Now Exhibition 2017, IMH Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK
2017 Rencontres Traverse Vidéo 2017, Toulouse, France
2016 Alienation, The Ground Floor Gallery, New York, USA
2016 Alienation, James Oliver Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
2016 The Art of Caring, The Rose Theatre, Kingston , London
2016 Perceptions of the Figurative, 5th Base Gallery, London
2015 Pure Painting, BAR Gallery, London
2015 The Art of Caring, The Rose Theatre, Kingston, London
2015 Discorporate Bodies5, The Unstitute (on line portal) - UK
2014 Toride International Video Projection Contest, Toride City – Japan
2014 Ouseburn Open Studios Biscuit Tin Studios, Newcastle, UK
2014 Jawspring , Wimbledon Village Hall, London
2013 Biscuit Tin Artists, Van Mildert College, Durham, UK
2013 The Late Shows, Biscuit Tin Studios ,Newcastle, UK
1996 Open Studio Show, Childers Street Studios – London
1994 M.A. Show, University of Northumbria – Newcastle,UK
1994 Middlesbrough Open, Middlesbrough Art Gallery – Cleveland, UK
1992 Spring & Autumn Show, South Yorkshire Art Gallery – Doncaster, UK
1990 JP Portrait Award - Four selected works, Broughton House Gallery, Cambridge, UK
1989 John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery – London
1988 John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery – London
1988 Richmond Open, Richmond Print Gallery – Melbourne, Australia
1987 4th Humberside Print Open, Ferens Art Gallery – Hull, UK
1987 Staff Show WSCAD, Maltings – Farnham, UK
1987 On a Plate WSCAD, Farnham, UK
1986 9th Bradford Print Open, Cartwright Hall – Bradford, UK
1985 Printers Progress, Carlisle Art Gallery – Carlisle, UK
1984 Contemporary Printmakers, Playhouse Gallery – Newcastle, UK
1984 3rd Mini Print Biennale, Tallergaleria Fort – Barcelona
1983 8th Mini Print Open, Pratt Graphics Center – New York
Radio
2017 Corruption to Redemption Rounded Radio, London
2015 In deep water (sound art piece for video) SoundArt Show | Series 2: Episode 7 by Claire Kearns
2015 My Music back catalogue interview Hive Radio – Trevor Johnson
2015 Artist Blogs Hive Radio – Another Music in a Different Kitchen
Education
1994
University of Northumbria - MA Fine Art
1992
University of Durham - PGCE
1984
Sunderland Polytechnic - BA (Hon) Fine Art (2-1)
1981
Sunderland Polytechnic - Foundation Studies, Art & Design
About Mark Carr
I have drunk from many of life’s cups and touched many lives; from making love on the top of a down town Manhattan apartment block to quietly sharing a Scottish highland hillside with half a dozen red deer. My work as an artist, musician, poet and educator reflects and responds to these experiences, both good and bad and all that lies between.
I was born into a working class family in the North East of England, Gateshead to be precise; my father, a maintenance electrician, trained and hardened in the Jarrow shipyards of the 1930’s – my mother a SEN nurse, trained on the death, destruction, but camaraderie of WW2. My formative years were spent protected and under the wing of my middle older sister, street playing and exploring; getting up to mischief, learning from life; sharing a warm double bed with her and my great aunt in a small rented semi-detached council house. Always cared for, always protected.
As a young teenager in the early 1970’s I attended a large comprehensive school which I found violent and intimidating, not unusual for the time. My timid nature forced me to retreat into my own world, spending much time in the family home drawing and dreaming. Then as the hormones kicked in, I forced myself to become part of a ‘street gang’, rejecting academic studies for a safe place to ‘hang out’, to be seen, to be in a protected place once again.
Then came 1976 and ‘Punk Rock’. Through my teenage years music had gradually become an important part of my life, but this music changed me. It gave me the platform to realise three things: the importance of being an individual; the importance of questioning everything and every authority; the belief that anyone could make ‘critical’ music/art, no matter how simple. My hair changed, clothes changed and a guitar was bought. And to do this work was sort – part-time work in a men’s clothes store; the beginning of a wide and varied employment that has taken me from everywhere to nowhere and back again: from ‘white water rafting guide’ in Australia to primary school teacher in the UK; from alternative health practitioner to self-employed storyteller; from a labourer in a brick works to a mental ill health support worker. I have touched a multitude of lives; learning, healing, giving, but above all sharing experiences.
Passions
ART – Mark has been making and exhibiting art in the UK since his teenage years, gaining a BA (Hons) Fine Art in 1984 and an MA Fine Art in 1994. For brief periods in 1988 and 1990 he worked and exhibited in Australia. His work is in public and private collections in the UK, America and Australia. Originally a printmaker and painter, he now concentrates on multimedia work incorporating many elements, including: video, music, sound, print, painting and lighting effects. His work is essentially political and figurative. Recent projects: CUP OF LIFE (2016-2018), a body of paintings and prints, which commented on the 'Human Condition' in the 21st century; THE SCREAM (2019 -2020), a 50 minute video/performance which is an autopsy of mental ill health (specifically his own) created over an 12 month period with DJ and musicologist Trevor Johnson; I AM SOMEBODY (2019 - 2022), a major series of work documenting and celebrating the 'Friends' who access the People's Kitchen in Newcastle for free food and other essential services. The 31 life size woodcut portraits, 31 eye-slit photo/images and an 18-minute video will be exhibited in Assembly House (Newcastle Arts Centre) in September 2022.
MUSIC – I formed, played and composed songs in a number of North East bands through the late 70’s to the mid 80’s, playing in clubs and pubs across the region and in London. In the late 90’s and early 00’s I played in a retro punk band, playing clubs, pubs and festivals across NE England. Around 2000 I started to produce and record my own music under the band name ARMCHAIRANARCHISTS, which in 2013 culminated in the release of my first album ‘Corruption’. My second album, released in 2021, 'Liebe - Hata - Stultitia' (Love, Hate, Stupidity) was recorded through a ten month period of lockdown. Each song had an art video to accompany it, made in collaboration with Trevor Johnson. My new single 'Kiss Me In My Mind' (2022) is now out on Aldora Britain Records. Original music and sounds have also become an integral part of the art-videos I produce; the visuals for these videos are rarely conceived without the sound. I have also written two children’s musicals, which were performed in primary schools in N E England.
EDUCATION – I have been involved in art education since the mid 80’s, teaching and demonstrating art at degree level, six form level and in adult education. On returning to the UK in 1991 I completed a PGCE at Durham University and from then until 2020 I taught part-time in a wide range of schools to support my practice. For a period of three years in the late 90’s and early 00’s I also delivered educational music and story-telling workshops to this age group, guiding the children to write original songs and stories.
WRITING – I have been writing poetry for over 20 years. I self-published an anthology of this work entitled ‘Thirteen’, in 2013 and have had various poems published in online journals, such as: www.consilience-journal.com. In 2015/16 wrote a bi-weekly artist’s blog on the a-n website, which was also broadcast on Hive community radio. I have had two articles published in the on-line walking magazine, Cicerone-extra 2016/17. In March 2021 an article I wrote about my video/performance work (The Scream) was published in the on-line portal, Video Hook-Ups. I am currently engaged in writing novel length work written from the first person, exploring the cusp of insanity through a dystopian world. A short story with similar themes (It all begins again) was published as part of the anthology 'Tabula Rasa', Monnath Books 2021.
RADIO – I have been a passionate radio listener since his teenage years. From 1998 – 2001 I was a volunteer hospital radio presenter and ward visitor at the RVI, Newcastle. In 2015 my AN artist blog was broadcast on Hive Radio, a community radio station running out of South Tyneside. From the beginning of 2022 I have been presenting my own bi-weekly radio show (Music From The Outside) on Star and Shadow Radio, based at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle, UK.
OUTDOOR PURSUITS – – I have been a keen long-distance walker since my teenage years. In 2011 and 2012 I devised, walked and mapped a route from Inverness to Drymen, the East Highland Trail. In 2013 I designed a website to promote the route - https://mcarr910.wixsite.com/east-highland-trail. In the 90’s I also worked for two seasons as a white-water rafting guide in Victoria, Australia.
TRAVEL:I have been travelling abroad since the late 70’s. In 1982, I won a travelling scholarship from Sunderland Polytechnic. This I used to spend that summer travelling throughout Europe taking in as much art as I could. In 1988 I took a, round the world journey, exploring Bermuda, New York, Vancouver, San Diego, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. In 1990 I took a further journey to India and Australia. Subsequently I have had a number of further visits to Australia and many capital cities of Europe. However, Scotland remains my favourite place in the world. To be walking alone in the highlands of Scotland is a journey that has never been surpassed.
COOKING – I have been a passionate cook since his early 20’s with particular interest in vegetarian, Italian and Indian cuisine. I self-published a vegan cook book in the mid 90’s entitled ‘A taste of Vegan’. I am currently updating this for the modern vegan enthusiasts.
COMMUNITY WORK -I have been involved in community work since my early 20’s, contributing and helping to coordinate many fun days, music festivals, mural paintings and bonfire designs, both in the NE of England and in Somerset. I volunteered, as part of a cooking team, at the 'Peoples Kitchen' in Newcastle 2017 - 2020.
HEALTH and HELP – In the early 00’s I retrained in two areas: gaining a post graduate diploma in Remedial and Sports Massage, and a NVQ in Promoting Independence in Mental ill Health. For seven years I worked part-time as a sports and remedial masseur helping people recover from physical and mental trauma, relieving pain and gaining mobility. At the same time, I also worked part-time with adults recovering from mental ill health using his skills as an artist to promote well-being and self-esteem.
MY PARTNER – My final and most important passion is my life-long friend and partner, my wife Brenda. She has been my muse, my most passionate supporter, my steadying ship, my love… my life.
Publications and Reviews
Images Les Rencontres Traverse Video, 20 Ans 2017
JPS National Portrait Award Catalogue 1989
Forth Humberside Print Exhibition Catalogue 1987
Ninth British International Print Biennale Catalogue 1986
Iron Press Magazine 1985
Articles
NARC magazine, August (article) 2022
The Working Artist, October 2021
NARC magazine Nov/Dec (interview and review) 2020
The Oxford Times (interview and review) 2018
Les Rencontres Traverse Video, 20 Ans (review) 2017
Somerset Guardian (interview and review) 2013
City Limits (London) (review) 1990
Ten Years of JPS National Portrait Award (review) 1989
Tricycle Gallery Programme (review) 1989