I moved from Brooklyn to North Eastern Dutchess county in the latter part of 1991 and have been living and painting here ever since.
To make ends meet I have worked a lot of different jobs, some of which required great skill, focus and creativity while others were all about endurance. Together they have all had an effect on the way I paint and the sort of artist I am.
For over twenty years I have been painting abstract or non-representational works. I use colors I’ve mixed out in the landscape and commercial grade paints typically used on farms or in construction, as well as industrial tapes and fasteners, and many kinds of organic material. Yet, the paintings always remain very reductive in nature. I seek in each painting to have it’s connection to the area and landscape I live in, and the physical act of making the painting, be the foundational subject of the work.
It was through the evolution of my non-representational paintings that in 2015 I began seeing figurative images in my mind’s eye for the first time in many years. The images I was seeing were very basic and rough, but very insistent. To engage with and explore them I began making figurative paintings concurrent with my non-representational work. The figure paintings are as reductive as the non-representational work and I find that the two bodies of work constantly feed off of and aid one another.
For a number of years I have shown mostly through pop-up shows. I’ve staged single day shows in locations such as a hay field or an abandoned milking barn. I’ve also shown images of my paintings in amongst pre-show on screen advertisements in movie theaters or in paid ad space in publications like the New York Review of Books and Chronogram Magazine.
I have also shown my work, in the Hudson Valley, at the Re Institute, Millerton, NY; The Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY; the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY; The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; and at the CCS library on the campus of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. In 2005, and again in 2023. In 2007, I received a fellowship for a residency at the Vermont Studio Center and was chosen to participate in the Radius Program at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.
Mark DeLura, 2023
SHOWS
2023 Lab Space, Hillsdale, NY - Winter Group Invitational Show.
* A selection of my non-representational works were hung in the administrative wing of The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.
2019 The Re Institute, Millerton, NY - Three person show with Joel and Diane Schapira * I placed singular images in the Classified section of two issues of The New York Review of Books.
2018 * I placed singular images in the Classified section of nine issues of The New York Review of Books. * I began placing my images in the pre show on screen advertising at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck and Woodstock, NY. The images ran from October 2018 to March 2019.
2017 The Re Institute, Millerton, NY - Solo show. * I placed a narrative series of images in paid advertising space in nine issues of Chronogram Magazine. * I placed singular images in the Classified section of seven issues of The New York Review of Books.
2016 1 Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY - Group show, “Life After Suny”. * One single day pop-up show in Dutchess County, NY.
2015 * Four single day pop-up shows in two locations in Columbia and Dutchess Counties, NY.
2014 * Two Single day pop-up shows in a hay field in Columbia County, NY.
2013 * I installed paintings in various outdoor locations in Dutchess and Columbia Counties, NY throughout the year.
2012 * I installed paintings in various outdoor locations in Dutchess and Columbia Counties, NY throughout the year.
2011 The RE Institute, Millerton, NY - Solo show.
2008 The Library at The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College - Group show.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT - Group Show, “Aldrich Undercover”. The Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY - Group Show, “Fueled Overtones”.
2007 Ridgefield Guild of Artists and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT - group show, “Radius”.
2002 Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY - group show, “Food for Thought”. Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY - group show, “Botanical”.
Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY - group show, “Hudson Valley Artists”.
2000 Lorraine Kessler Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY - group show, “Mangia”. The Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY - group show, “Connected (Landscape and Still Life)”.
1999 Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY - two person show with Lorraine Klagsbrun. Garuda Gallery, Sharon, CT - two person show with Henrik Haaland.
1998 Spencertown Academy, Spencertown, NY - group show.
1996 Garuda Gallery, Sharon, CT - solo show, “Pieces From the Young Artist Series”.
David Gavin Gallery, Millerton, NY - two person show with Henrik Haaland. McKinney & Doyle, Art on View, Pawling, NY - solo show, “Abstract Studies in Painting”.
Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY - group show.
1992 NYS Armory, Poughkeepsie, NY - group show, “New Perspectives”.
1990 Sharon Creative Arts Foundation, Sharon, CT - group show. * I continue my practice of painting impromptu murals at night in New York City into and through most of 1991.
1989 Ashe, Venice, CA - solo show, “Explorations in Painting”.
1988 * While living in Los Angeles I began painting impromptu murals on the temporary wood walls used around construction sites. I continued this practice until I moved to New York in 1990.
AWARDS
2007 Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Radius Program.
2005 Vermont Studio Center, Partial Fellowship for a one month residency.
RELATED EXPERIENCE
2008 - 2023 - Head Preparator for the Hessel Museum of Art and the CCS Galleries at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
2016 - Conducted, along with the artist Joel Schapira, studio visits with artists in the Wassaic Project’s residency program.
2000- 2002 - Owner of Taconic Art Services a small fabrication shop working with artists, galleries, and museums in NYC and the Hudson Valley.
1990- 2000 - Freelance Installer/Preparator, working with the Barbara Gladstone and Pace Wildenstein galleries, and museums such as The Katonah Museum and the Museum Space at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting, 1987, SUNY College at Purchase, Purchase, NY. Studied with; Robert Berlind, Nancy Davidson, Harriet Schorr, John Cohen, Murry Zimmilies, and Antonio Frasconi.
PUBLICATIONS
1999 The Country and Abroad
Feature article, June (pp. 28 & 29)
1990 SOHO WALLS Beyond Graffiti
Thames and Hudson, 1990 (pp. 86 & 93)
1987 Poughkeepsie Journal
Review of show at Movie House December 2
WEBSITES and BLOGS
http://forminthefire.blogspot.com/2013/01/mark-deluras-paintings.html
http://chrisalbert.blogspot.com/2013/01/meet-yer-maykr-mark-delura.html