mark houghton
- Work
- Biography
The practice highlights overlooked aspects of the everyday, isolating and representing aspects of the urban environment, forging a visual poetry of the commonplace; elevating the irrelevance of the ordinary, whilst attempting to decode and decipher the complexity of the environments we inherit and inhabit.
I work with materials and objects usually unseen and undervalued, as well as the poetics of space, and the juncture in tension between both found and made objects, placed within the context of a defined boundary.
The work embraces the world of the found object. I do not support the notion of a hierarchy of objects and believe that “everything is up for grabs and reinterpretation”. The initial inspiration for works can often appear quite inconsequential – a chance find in a junk shop, a line from a song or an unusual positioning of items in the street.
The use of everyday inspirations and objects is intended in one way to elevate status, but this is not meant to be a subversive act on the part of the artist. It is intended more as a levelling of the playing field in relation to the gathering of presented material, chosen and utilised more for its artistic potential and the possibility of metaphoric reinvention.
All the works are deliberately open-ended and are intended to be completed by the viewer, as they bring their own memories and experiences to the interpretative process.
I work with materials and objects usually unseen and undervalued, as well as the poetics of space, and the juncture in tension between both found and made objects, placed within the context of a defined boundary.
The work embraces the world of the found object. I do not support the notion of a hierarchy of objects and believe that “everything is up for grabs and reinterpretation”. The initial inspiration for works can often appear quite inconsequential – a chance find in a junk shop, a line from a song or an unusual positioning of items in the street.
The use of everyday inspirations and objects is intended in one way to elevate status, but this is not meant to be a subversive act on the part of the artist. It is intended more as a levelling of the playing field in relation to the gathering of presented material, chosen and utilised more for its artistic potential and the possibility of metaphoric reinvention.
All the works are deliberately open-ended and are intended to be completed by the viewer, as they bring their own memories and experiences to the interpretative process.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Depot Art Fair, Oxford
2024 Aleph Contemporary, Stroud
2023 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2022 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2021 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2020 Now the Sea is Deeper, The Stone Space, London
2018 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2016 You Me It Now, 13 Herald Street, London
2013 Interference, Chapter, Cardiff
2011 Upstare, The Downstairs Gallery, Herefordshire
2011 Occidental Collusions, West Wales School of the Arts Gallery
2009 Inbetweenies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2009 Open, Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford
2009 Hole in the Wall, Cardiff 2008 Globe Gallery , Hay on Wye, Herefordshire
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS / INSTALLATIONS
2023 Winter Sculpture Park, Gallery 32, London
2022 Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Wells – JGM Gallery prize winner
2022 Salon des Refuses, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
2022 West Midlands Open, New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall
2022 Pulp, Pitt Studio, Worcester
2022 Unstable Line, Air Gallery, Manchester
2021 Phylactery, with Elenchus, Gallery46, Whitechapel, London
2021 Surge, with Visual Arts Scotland, Tatha Gallery, Fife, Scotland
2021 AIR Open 21, AIR Gallery, Manchester
2021 Holt Art Prize, Norfolk
2020 Dance First, Think Later, General Practice, Lincoln
2019/20 VAS Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2019 Open19, Galeri Caernarfon, Caernarfon, Wales
2018/19 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London
2019 Neoart Prize, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Bolton
2019 Conversations in Sculpture, Huddersfield Art Gallery,
as part of Yorkshire Sculpture International with
the Royal Society of Sculptors
2019 Alight, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland
Group Show – won Richard Coley Award for Sculpture
2018/19 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London
2018 Wells Art Contemporary, Wells, Somerset
2018 National Eisteddfod of Wales, Cardiff
2017 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London
2017 Bankley Open, Manchester
2017 We: You,Me, Firstsite, Colchester
2017 FLUX, Centrala,
2024 Depot Art Fair, Oxford
2024 Aleph Contemporary, Stroud
2023 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2022 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2021 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2020 Now the Sea is Deeper, The Stone Space, London
2018 Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, Manchester
2016 You Me It Now, 13 Herald Street, London
2013 Interference, Chapter, Cardiff
2011 Upstare, The Downstairs Gallery, Herefordshire
2011 Occidental Collusions, West Wales School of the Arts Gallery
2009 Inbetweenies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2009 Open, Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford
2009 Hole in the Wall, Cardiff 2008 Globe Gallery , Hay on Wye, Herefordshire
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS / INSTALLATIONS
2023 Winter Sculpture Park, Gallery 32, London
2022 Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, Wells – JGM Gallery prize winner
2022 Salon des Refuses, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
2022 West Midlands Open, New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall
2022 Pulp, Pitt Studio, Worcester
2022 Unstable Line, Air Gallery, Manchester
2021 Phylactery, with Elenchus, Gallery46, Whitechapel, London
2021 Surge, with Visual Arts Scotland, Tatha Gallery, Fife, Scotland
2021 AIR Open 21, AIR Gallery, Manchester
2021 Holt Art Prize, Norfolk
2020 Dance First, Think Later, General Practice, Lincoln
2019/20 VAS Open, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2019 Open19, Galeri Caernarfon, Caernarfon, Wales
2018/19 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London
2019 Neoart Prize, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Bolton
2019 Conversations in Sculpture, Huddersfield Art Gallery,
as part of Yorkshire Sculpture International with
the Royal Society of Sculptors
2019 Alight, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland
Group Show – won Richard Coley Award for Sculpture
2018/19 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London
2018 Wells Art Contemporary, Wells, Somerset
2018 National Eisteddfod of Wales, Cardiff
2017 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London
2017 Bankley Open, Manchester
2017 We: You,Me, Firstsite, Colchester
2017 FLUX, Centrala,
Collections
- 2019
- mark houghton
- Now the Sea is Deeper
- 2020
- mark houghton
- The Triangle Series
- 2025
- mark houghton
- Bad Memory
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