Mark Jarzombek
Artist Statement:
Since I was in graduate school, I have been making art, mostly collages, as many of my good friends know. Over the years the work has expanded into something like ‘wall sculpture.’ I use material found on construction sites (like wood, bits of foam, paint can tops etc.), or found along walks in the forest (like bark and rocks), or material that was left over from our kitchen remodeling (like screw, knobs, and bits of plastic). I also periodically raid construction site dumpsters. I mount material in ways that - hopefully – is a bit surprising, sometimes overt, sometimes covert. And I love color.
Back in the mid 1970s I was with a group of students from the ETH-Zurich who studied with the architect and collage artist Bernhard Hoesli (1923–1984). During my studies I traveled with the architect Franz Oswald and the New York artist Robert Slutzky (1929 - 2005) to Italy for collage-making workshops. Slutzky taught us about the intimate relationship between form and color palettes. Trips later in my life to India and other places in the world open my mind to other ways to incorporate colors and narratives. The pieces are constructed in a way that is both precarious yet stable. They are designed as part ‘painting’ and part ‘sculpture,’ meant to be seen from various angels and distances.
Since I was in graduate school, I have been making art, mostly collages, as many of my good friends know. Over the years the work has expanded into something like ‘wall sculpture.’ I use material found on construction sites (like wood, bits of foam, paint can tops etc.), or found along walks in the forest (like bark and rocks), or material that was left over from our kitchen remodeling (like screw, knobs, and bits of plastic). I also periodically raid construction site dumpsters. I mount material in ways that - hopefully – is a bit surprising, sometimes overt, sometimes covert. And I love color.
Back in the mid 1970s I was with a group of students from the ETH-Zurich who studied with the architect and collage artist Bernhard Hoesli (1923–1984). During my studies I traveled with the architect Franz Oswald and the New York artist Robert Slutzky (1929 - 2005) to Italy for collage-making workshops. Slutzky taught us about the intimate relationship between form and color palettes. Trips later in my life to India and other places in the world open my mind to other ways to incorporate colors and narratives. The pieces are constructed in a way that is both precarious yet stable. They are designed as part ‘painting’ and part ‘sculpture,’ meant to be seen from various angels and distances.
Artist Bio: Mark Jarzombek is Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture at MIT. He has been teaching since 1988. He has written numerous books and has a design and research practice called the Office of (Un)Certainty Research with his collaborator Vikramaditya Prakash. Their work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2021 and 2023) and elsewhere. Over the decades Jarzombek developed his artistic practice, drawing on his early training with the Swiss collage artist Bernhard Hoesli. He produces wall-mounted works that are somewhere between painting and sculpture. Until recently, he has never publicized his work which were known to a small circle of friends and collectors.
