Mark Dion

©Chris Baker

East River Biological Field Station, 2004
This aluminum clad structure, perched on a flat bed truck overlooking the river and the Manhattan skyline, functions as a working laboratory for the observation and identification of wildlife in and around the East River. Biology students from Long Island City High School will man the station and maintain records on weather and water conditions, tides, and their observations of the environment.

Born 1961
Lives in Beach Lake, PA and works worldwide

Education
2003  Doctor of Arts, PhD, University of Hartford School of Art, West       
         Hartford, CT
1985  Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Independent Study
         Program, New York, NY
1984  School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1982, 1986 B.F.A., University of Hartford School of Art, West Hartford, CT

Recent solo exhibitions include: Mark Dion: drawings and printed works, Goodwater, Toronto, Canada (2004); Office for the Center for the Study of Surrealism and its Legacies, Manchester Museum, UK (2004); Universal Collection, Historisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (2004); The Tropical Travels of Thomas Ender Reconsidered (1817-1818), Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria (2004); RN: The Past, Present and Future of the Nurse Uniform, The Fabric Workshop and Museum (in collaboration with J. Morgan Puett), Philadelphia, PA (2003); The Ichthyosaurus, the Magpie, and Other Marvels of the Natural World, Musée Gassendi and la Reserve Geologique de Haute Provence, Digne, France & Centro Sperimentale Art Contemporanea, Caraglio, Italy (2003); Full House, 9th Annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT (2003); Mark Dion: Collaborations 1987-2003, Joseloff Gallery, Hartford, CT & American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY (2003); Mark Dion: Encyclomania, Villa Merkel, Esslingen to Kunstverein Hannover, & Bonner Kunstverien, Bonn, Germany (2002); Microcosmographia, University of Tokyo Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2002); Vivarium, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, NY (2002); Urban Wildlife Observation Unit, The Public Art Fund, Madison Square Park, NY (2002); New England Digs, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA; Bell Art Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI; University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA (2001); Cabinet of Curiosity for the Weisman Art Museum, Wiesman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN (2001);The Museum of Poison, Bonakdar Jancou Gallery, New York, NY (2000); Nature Bureaucracies, American Fine Arts Co., New York, NY (2000);Two Banks (Tate Thames Dig), Tate Gallery, London, UK (1999); Where The Land Meets The Sea, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (1999).

During the past five years Mark Dion has exhibited in numerous national and international group exhibitions including: Animals & Us: The Animal in Contemporary Art, The Galerie St. Etienne, New York, NY (2004); For the Birds, Artspace, New Haven, CT (2004); Past Presence: Contemporary Reflections on the Main Line, Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA (2004); São Paulo Bienal, São Paulo, Brasil, (2004); De L'homme et Des Insectes, L'Espace EDF Electra, Paris, France (2003); Hommage Jean-Henri Fabre, Musee Histoire Naturele, Paris, France (2003); Global Priority, Herter Art Gallery, Amherst, MA (2003); Artist’s Lecture as Performance, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK (2003); The House of Fiction, Sammlung Hauser und Wirth, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2002); Concrete Jungle, Gorney Bravin + Lee, New York, NY (2002); Hellgreen, Hofgarden, Dusseldorf, Germany (2002); Lateral Thinking: Art of the 1990s, (2001-2004), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA (2001); Fresh Kills, Snug Harbor Center for Contemporary Art, NY (2001); Museum as Subject, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2001); American Art Today: Fantasies & Curiosities, The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL (2000); In-Site 2000, San Diego, CA (2000); Crossing the Line, The Queens Museum of Art, NY (2000); Small World - Dioramas in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA (2000);The Museum as Muse, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1999); Carnegie International, 99/00, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (1999).

Mark Dion has also exhibited extensively across the US and internationally including shows in: Austria; Belgium; Brazil; British Columbia; Canada; France; Germany; Italy; Japan, Malaysia; Spain; Switzerland, The Netherlands; Poland; United Kingdom; and Venezuela.
Mark was the recipient of the 9th annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 2001.

Publications include: Mark Dion: Polar Bear (Uras Maritimus), Mark Dion, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Koln, Germany, 2003; Mark Dion: Drawings, Journals, Photographs, Souveiners and Trophies 1990-2003, ed. Richard Klein, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT, 2003; Mark Dion: New England Digs, Murney Gerlach, Denise Markonish, Leah Rosenmeier, Antone G. Souza Jr., Gregory Volk, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA, 2001; Mark Dion: Archeology, ed. Alex Coles and Mark Dion, Black Dog Publishing Limited, European Union, 1999; Ecologies: Mark Dion, Peter Fend, Dan Peterman, Stephanie Smith, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL., 2001, Mark Dion, Lisa Graziose Corrin, Miwon Kwon, Norman Bryson, Phaidon Press, London, UK, 1997; Concrete Jungle, eds. Alexis Rockman & Mark Dion, Juno Books, New York, NY, 1996.