Mark Hosford’s work has always embraced the aesthetic found in the staples of the counter culture: punk rock posters, underground comics, and horror movies. Growing up in Kansas he would often make trips to the Nelson-Atkins Museum and was shaped early on by the blending of fantasy and social commentary he saw in the Japanese print collection as well as Francisco Goya’s prints. At the heart of Hosford’s exhibition for Clough-Hanson Gallery is a series of drawings based on the original ten inkblots that comprise psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach’s famous tests. Hosford lightly printed the inkblot onto white sheets of drawing paper and then, staying true to the good doctor’s method, would respond the images by drawing the first images that came to mind. In this way the drawings are a frozen moment in the artist’s life, capturing what he saw on that day.
Mark Hosford studied received his BFA in printmaking from the University of Kansas and completed his graduate studies at the University of Tennessee. He has had one person shows at the Greiner Art Gallery at Hanover College in Indiana, at the Taylor Bercier Fine Art in New Orleans, The Upper Gallery at the University of Dallas in Texas, The Thompson Gallery at Furman University in South Carolina, and at Temporary Contemporary at the Cheekwood in Nashville. He has received a number of awards including the Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Graphic Chemical Purchase Award at The Boston Printmakers 2009 North American Print Biennial, 808 Gallery at Boston University, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum Purchase Award at the Minnesota National Print Biennial in Minneapolis, as well as a residency at Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium. He teaches printmaking at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Additional work can be viewed at the artist’s website www.sugarboypress.com.