Mark Titmarsh
Mark Titmarsh is a contemporary Australian painter. His work involves permutations of painting, sculpture, installation, screen media, performance and writing . In 2017, he published a book called Expanded Painting.
Work
During the early 1980s Titmarsh was a in the underground Super 8 film scene. He produced a number of film projects in Super 8, and in 1982, with Ross Gibson, Lindy Lee, Deirdre Beck and Janet Burchill, formed the Super 8 Collective, who together staged the 3rd Sydney Super 8 Film Festival at the Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, SydneyFollowing the 1983 festival, The Sydney Super 8 Film Group, with Titmarsh the sole continuing member from the previous year, was formed and continued to organise and stage festivals, publish film readers and tour programs of film throughout the 1980s.
During this period Titmarsh was. His work as a painter was included in Australian Perspecta 1989 and his film work was shown in Australian Perspecta 1986.
In the 1990s he co-founded the Sydney-based artist's run initiative Art Hotline exhibiting weekly one day exhibitions of ephemeral works in non-gallery everyday sites. He is the editor of an eponymously titled book documenting the 3-year life of the project.
His current practice gathered under the term ‘expanded painting’, involves deconstructing traditional conventions of painting based on canvas, brush, and stretcher and replacing them with other materials including contemporary devices and post-industrial services.
Exhibitions
Titmarsh's exhibition history comprises Australian and international exhibitions. It includes the Pompidou Centre, Paris, France and the Ionion Centre for Art and Culture, Greece. He has held exhibitions at commercial galleries including Roslyn Oxley, Sydney, Bellas Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia and Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne.A monograph about his work, titled, The Thing, was written by Cameron Tonkinwise, and published by Artspace. Sydney, in 2006.
Collections
Titmarsh's works are held in museums and private and corporate collections in Australia, Europe and the United States. These include:- The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
- The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- The National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria, Australia