MARKO

Born Manchester 1963
Lives and works in Worthing, West Sussex, UK.

Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, Marko subliminally absorbed a range of visual stimuli that later influenced his art, these include modernist design and print, cartoons, psychedelic graphics, and minimalist abstraction. These influences have helped to create his distinct and personal visual vocabulary.

Through a playful exploration of materials and processes, his work hovers between the boundaries of spontaneity and precision. He has a fascination with the screen-printing process, particularly using hand cut paper stencils to create the imagery. This method, with its bold, flat, and vibrant forms, gives the work a punchy energy and visual directness.

With his paintings and sculptures, there is an attraction to using humble, everyday materials, such as, paper, wood, cardboard and found materials which emphasise tactility, imperfection, and the temporary nature of things. There is a joyful enthusiasm in the making of these objects that heighten their daft inventiveness.

Marko strives for a pared down simplicity, a kind of sexy and downright playful funky-ness. There is a cartoony quality to his forms, they seem to exist independently, in their own worlds. They are often floating, and singular, free from everyday burdens they generate their own personalities, like goofy, one of a kind, cosmic totems.