Born in Sydney Australia in 1982, Mark Whalen received his diploma of graphic design from Martin College, Sydney. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Whalen’s versatile and interdisciplinary practice explores sculpture video with scales ranging from small table – based works to large immersive sculptures. Whalen’s moquettes are realised in the digital realm, intentionally without gender or physical body, then fabricated with polyurethane and cast aluminum and marble. In bright colors, the distinctive and exaggerated facial characteristics and body language concurrently shift Under the weight of social anxieties. The resulting figurations are part of an overarching narrative : each body part belongs to a single fictional protagonist, cumulating to represent vast spectrum of human emotion.
Mark Whalen has exhibited extensively internationally, including at Art Basel, Frieze Seoul, Frieze Los Angeles, Zona Maco, Untitled Art Fair Miami, Centro de Arte Contemporaneo De Malaga, Museum of Contemporary Art Macro, National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.