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'I find objects, items cast aside by man or from nature. I don’t find them as such, I see them as being found, as if they were lost, waiting patiently for me to discover. I’m interested in the process of degradation, and the moment when I find an object that’s on the path to being drawn back into the earth. I re-imagine their reality, introducing a sense of the fantastical. Sometimes it’s a solo object, or I create a tableau to tell a tale. More often they are accompanied with the story I imagined, or left naked of words, leaving it to the viewer to put a full stop at the end of their imagination of the piece.'
Casbar Gallery (solo show)
Big Chill Art Trails
Pringle Of Scotland
Institute Of Contemporary Art
'EARTH - Art of a changing world', The Royal Academy
Sketch (various)
'The Great Imagining', with Gavin Turk
‘My Dear Earth’, Hayward Gallery
‘Obscura’, Swanfall Gallery
Guernica 37
‘About Time’ - People’s choice award, Swanfall Gallery
‘Murmation’, ADL Gallery
‘The Garden Of Tomorrow’, with Gavin Turk
‘This Way Comes’ ADL Gallery
‘Dream Time’ (Solo Show) OBX
‘Imagined Reality’, (Solo Show) The Art Of The Senses
‘Playground’, Swanfall Gallery
‘Jon de Cortina Award Guernica 37 award’
A childhood naturalist, Mark spent his formative years in the woods that surrounded the family home in Cornwall. A born collector, his bedroom was a trove of tanks of the living, bottles and jars of the dead and taxidermized roadkill.
At 16, Bell picked up a camera.
At 18 he travelled to London to chase the dream of a photographer. After a few years, with an agent and work published in Blitz and Vogue, he crossed paths to sculpture, making pieces from found objects and fresh metal. He studied at the London College Of Furniture.
His career morphed to become a Creative Director. He went onto found two design agencies, Warm Rain and latterly Mark Lawson Bell Studio, under the moniker of Plinth Creative. Their client lists cited the world’s top brands; from ABSOLUT vodka, Boucheron, Cartier and Veuve Clicquot. They won a D&AD yellow pencil for a Pringle of Scotland interior, and featured in many design books. He was also the Artistic Director of ‘sketch’ in London’s Mayfair for 14 years, by all accounts the most creative collection of restaurants and bars under one roof.
Many clients would tell him ‘Mark you’re an artist’ Having created brand stories for so long, so he is.
Mark lives and works in Hastings, East Sussex, has three left handed daughters and is seen, always, with a leaf in his pocket.