Mark Sink (born 1958, Denver], CO) is an American photographer best known for romantic portraiture. Some of his most recognizable images include documentation of life and work of artists such as Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Rene Ricard [1] and other artists from the New York art scene of the 1980s, before returning to Denver. Mark Sink has exhibiting his work professionally since 1978 to the present day from street art, art galleries to museums and other institutions.[2]
Photography
Career
Mark Sink started his career using the Diana, a 120mm plastic toy camera, whose soft focus and inconsistencies create beautifully romantic black and white images [1] The artist used this simple tool to create moving and intimate portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and Rene Ricard, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Adam Fuss, Ed Ruscha to Uma Thurman and many others.[1] Sink’s long career includes work from darkroom to digital, photo silkscreen, Polaroid, cyanotypes, and silver prints, as well as platinum printing. In the past decade, Sink and his partner Kristen Hatgi Sink have been using an early photographic process of collodion wet plate for his portraiture.[3] Capturing from photographing friends and models to Governor Hickenlooper, Gogol Bordello, Ryan McGinley and Denis Hopper.
Exhibition History
His portraits and other works have been continuously exhibited all around the United States, South America and Europe.[2] His work has appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art,[4] Jeffery Deitch Projects,[5] Kinsey Institute,[6][7] and MUFOCO,[8] as well as many art galleries in group and solo exhibitions. Sink’s contributing editorial photography appeared in print and online in Vogue, ArtForum, Art in America, Interview Magazine, Aspen Magazine and MGE.[9][2]
Gallery Representation
Founder / Curator
Month of Photography (MoP Denver)
Throughout his career, Mark Sink founded many organizations that celebrate contemporary cutting edge photography and art. Denver Salon was founded in 1992 and in 2014 transformed into the Denver Collage Club showcasing contemporary art of living Denver artists and organizing exhibitions.[12]
Mark Sink is the founder and director of Month of Photography Denver (MoP).[13] Starting since 2004, as the festival gained momentum,[14] Sink biannually coordinates over hundred eighty regional galleries, museums and art spaces to celebrating national and international photography across Colorado through.[15][16] In recent years of the MoP Festival, RedLine [17] has been the host for the main exhibition curated by Mark Sink.[18] In 2017, aside from their own exhibition space, Colorado Photographic Arts Center [19] curated an exhibition in the RedLine Project Space gallery.
BIG PICTURE / Festival of Light
Another project of note within MoP is the BIG PICTURE, an international street art exchange wheat pasting photography in the open air in over fifty cities worldwide, happening weekly during MoP.[20] Month of Photography Denver a part of the international Festival of Light, a collaboration of photography festivals around the world, including: Denver, Paris, Portland, Houston, Aleppo, Buenos Aires, Derby, Mexico City, Montreal and Toronto and many others.[21]
Museum of Contemporary Art Denver
In 1996 Mark Sink, Dale Chisman, Marina Graves and Lawrence Argent partnered with a philanthropist Sue Cannon to open Denver’s first Museum of Contemporary Art.[22][23] Before the MCA moved to its permanent location in 2007, Mark Sink was the one of original directors of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver until 2000 and remained as an original co-founding board member until 2005.[24]
GALLERY SINK
Parallel to the conception of the MCA Denver, Mark Sink was running his own art gallery, GALLERY SINK, in the historic Highland neighborhood opened in 1998.[24] Some of the Exhibited artists include Andy Warhol, Alice Neel, Chris Makos, Marie Cosindas, Paul Outerbridge, Walter Chappell, Winter Prather, Imogen Cunningham and others.[25] GALLERY SINK had great success for many years until the market crash in 2008, when Sink decided to focus on his own artistic practice, while moving his curatorial and art consulting practice to freelance and spend time to develop the Month of Photography. Mark Sink has been teaching, lecturing and reviewing photography since 1995 in Colorado and around the country.[2] After taking the gallery to a nomadic style, Sink has been traveling for countless photo festivals and juried shows including FotoFest, CENTER, PhotoLucida, PhotoFence, Palm Springs Photo festival in NY and AZ.[2]
Selected Publications
Some of Mark Sink’s most recent interviews and publications range from the local Denver Post on his Byers-Evans House museum Retrospective,[26] Interviews with Colorado Public Radio on Andy Warhol[27] and Jean-Michel Basquiat,[28] Denver Westword.[29] The international coverage of Month of Phrotography 2017 in L’Oeil De La Photographie,[30] Seieties Magazine,[31] and Wet Plate Day.[32] His interviews on The Andy Warhol Diaries[33] and his name can be found in The Andy Warhol Diaries Index,[34] as well as a retrospective of Warhol’s work in Fort Collins, where Sink and Warhol first met.[35] Sink’s editorial work can be found in TIME,[36] Mother Jones,[37] and can be found through Getty Images archive.[38]
References
Mark Sink
- ↑ a b c d RULE Gallery, CO
- ↑ a b c d e ARTnet
- ↑ Colorado Photographic Arts Center
- ↑ BMoCA
- ↑ Jeffry Deitch
- ↑ Kinsey Institute Collection
- ↑ Byers-Evans House Museum
- ↑ Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea
- ↑ MG Enthusiast
- ↑ Paul Cava, PA
- ↑ Robin Rice Gallery, NY
- ↑ Alto Gallery
- ↑ Dikeou Collection
- ↑ GALLERY SINK
- ↑ Month of Photography Denver
- ↑ Westword Denver
- ↑ RedLine
- ↑ Lenscratch
- ↑ Colorado Photographic Arts Center Exhibitions
- ↑ Zing Magazine
- ↑ Festival of Light
- ↑ Museum of Contemporary Art Denver
- ↑ Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Mark Sink
- ↑ a b Gallery Sink Homepage
- ↑ GALLERY SINK Archive
- ↑ The Denver Post
- ↑ Colorado Public Radio: Andy Warhol
- ↑ Colorado Public Radio: Jean-Michel Basquiat
- ↑ Westword: Mark Sink
- ↑ Eye of Photography
- ↑ Seities: Nude
- ↑ Wet Plate Day
- ↑ Warhol Stars
- ↑ Warhol Diaries Index
- ↑ Fort Collins Museum of Art
- ↑ Time
- ↑ Mother Jones
- ↑ Getty Images