Mark Manders

For more than three decades, Mark Manders has developed an endless self-portrait in the form of sculpture, still life, and architectural plans. Described by the artist as his ongoing “self-portrait as a building,” Manders’ works present mysterious and evocative tableaux that allow viewers to construct their own narrative conclusions and meanings. Initially inspired by an interest in writing and literature, Manders’ first conception of the self-portrait was more literal, employing language and the written word to describe his own narrative in an autobiography. Moving beyond the limits of language, he later began to explore the architecture of story telling, focusing on structure, rather than on specific content. This early realization resulted in his first sculptural investigations of form, meaning and narrative, which over the years have developed into a remarkable, and continually expanding body of work.

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Born in 1968 in Volkel, The Netherlands, Manders currently lives and works in Ronse, Belgium. Winner of the 2002 Philip Morris Art Prize, Manders also received the prestigious Dr. A.H Heineken Prize for Art in 2010.

In 2010, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles opened a major retrospective of his work entitled Parallel Occurrences / Documented Assignments, which later traveled to the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas through 2012. Forthcoming solo exhibitions include Mark Manders, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands (2025) and Mark Manders, Fondazione Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (2024). Other significant solo presentations include The Absence of Mark Manders, Woning Van Wassenhove, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium (2023); The Absence of Mark Manders at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2021); Double Silence at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2020); Mark Manders: Cose in corso at Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2014); Mark Manders at Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostel, Spain (2014); Les études d’ombres, Carré d'Art - Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes, France (2012); Revisions: Mark Manders, Carrillo Gil Museum of Art, Mexico City (2011); Two Interconnected Houses, La Casa Luis Barragân, Mexico City, Mexico, and The Absence of Mark Manders, which opened at Kunstverein Hannover, Germany in 2007, and traveled to S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium, Kunsthaus Zurich, and Bergen Kunsthall, Norway through 2009. The artist’s work has also been exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Pinakothek der Modern in Munich, among others.

Manders participated in group exhibitions at the Louvre in Paris (2015), S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2015), Guggenheim Museum in New York (2015), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2014), Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht (2014), 21er Haus in Vienna (2014), The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford (2012), the Menil Collection in Houston (2012), David Roberts Arts Foundation in London (2012), MoMA in New York (2012), ICA in Philadelphia (2011), DESTE Foundation in Athens (2011), Kunsthalle Bern (2010), amongst many others.

Manders has been commissioned by Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2017) and Rokin Square in Amsterdam (2017). In 2019, he was commissioned by the Public Art Fund to create a large sculpture for Doris C. Freedman Plaza in New York’s Central Park.

In 2013 Manders represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale. He was also included in the Ateliers de Rennes (2016), Athens Biennial (2007), Manifesta (2004), documenta (2002), and the Venice Biennale (2001).

Manders’ work can be found in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among man