Artist Brian Mark exhibition ‘’Haunting of the Harbor’’, Harbor Square Gallery of Rockland, Maine

DATES: September 6 - October 31, 2013

Artist Brian Mark uses the ghostly and beguiling medium of precious metals bathed in acid to take viewers on a haunting search for the epiphany as a faint ghost of an idea evolves from the subconscious and merges into the conscious mind.

Mark invented the medium of acid on stainless steel, in which hologram-like figures and images seemingly appear and disappear depending on their play with the light and position of the viewer to “enhance their calm but slightly eerie feel.”

This unique medium defies the usual categories of art and has been described as “there’s a feeling of peacefulness and reference for life, and the shimmering quality speaks of magic, ghosts, prayers, jewels” to “you know how some people say they see Jesus in dental X-rays, plaster, toast, and, well, pretty much any other surface? Brian Mark's art is kind of like that. Mark makes downright ghostly images with acid on large pieces of stainless steel.”

To create his works, Mark applies various acids on stainless steel and carefully creates color, enhancing the ground-in images with blowtorches or dry ice. He then electro-plates gold and silver to create his ghostly images.

Mark’s largest work in this medium is the 18-piece public art commission “The Practice of Balance” at the Houlton Court House, which compels viewers to examine the complex balances within the Judicial System by combining traditional symbols of the Justice system and the State of Maine. 

The title of the September exhibition is an allegory combining two symbols -- the haunting from our subconscious and the harbor as the solid ground of the conscious mind.

Mark is a classically trained artist whose extensive commissions include police memorials across the country and work for the US Embassy in the Ivory Coast. His work is also in numerous private collections, including the Witt Family Memorial in the National Cathedral, Washington, DC. He resides in South Portland.