Mark
Handforth

Mark
Handforth

British, born in 1969


Aluminium stars, misappropriated lampposts or Vespas covered with coloured wax, the work of Mark Handforth invites a poetic reading of the everyday in public space. Combining popular culture, artistic references and personal mythologies, since the 1990s the British artist has developed a unique and recognisable vocabulary, in line with both the minimalism of Dan Flavin and Pop Art.

At least two imageries coexist in the work of Mark Handforth. The first aims, by misappropriating them, to exploit the poetic potential of objects relating to road traffic in cities, such as signs or traffic cones. The second relates to subjects with symbolic connotations (star, moon, heart). The artist likes to reuse the same motif, giving it new readings over time.

Mark Handforth’s work was shown for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2009 exhibition "Mapping the Studio" at the Palazzo Grassi.