Mark Staff Brandl
Mark Staff Brandl (born 1955) is an American-born artist, art historian and art critic now living primarily in Switzerland.[1]
History
Born in Peoria, Illinois and raised in Pekin, Illinois, Brandl is the son of Earl and Ruth Brandl, and brother of Marcia Brandl Willhite. He lived for many years in Chicago, Illinois, where his career in fine art began. Brandl has lived primarily in Trogen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland since 1988. He studied art, art history, literature and literary theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University, and Columbia Pacific University, and completed his Ph.D. in art history and metaphor theory under [Philip Ursprung] at the University of Zurich in 2011.[2] Brandl is a lecturer in art history, painting, art theory and comics at the Art Academy of Liechtenstein in Nendeln, Liechtenstein and the Higher Technical Academy for Visual Art in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Brandl is most well known for his self-labeled "mongrel art": hybrids of installation and sequential paintings and drawings, which occasionally incorporate lectures as performances.[3]
Exhibitions and Publications
Brandl is active internationally as an artist since 1980, has won various awards, had many publications and had numerous exhibitions. His shows include galleries and museums in the US, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Egypt, the Caribbean; specific cities include Paris, Moscow, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. As a critic, he has been a frequent contributor to London’s The Art Book and a Contributing Editor for New York’s Art in America.[2] He has frequently collaborated with fellow former Pekinite Th. Emil Homerin.[4] Brandl has also been a contributor to Sharkforum,[5] a critical website concerning art and contributes to the renowned art critical podcast Bad at Sports.[6] Due to his participation in these publications and his many exhibitions, Brandl has become highly visible in the Chicago and New York art worlds, as well as in Europe. Recent exhibitions include a painting-installation in St. Gallen Switzerland and Berlin, Germany and a performance-art lecture in documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany in 2012. His newest project begun in 2017 is a series of lectures on art history presented entertainingly as performances with painted backdrops and within entire installations of paintings. Brandl calls this project, as well as himself in it, "Dr Great Art."[7] As a part of this, he has a biweekly podcast also titled 'Dr Great Art.'[8]
Collections
He is also the curator of The Collapsible Kunsthalle and the Kunstgrill in Zurich. Works of his have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the St. Gallen Art Museum, The Thurgau Museum of Fine Art, The E.T.H. Graphic Collection in Zurich, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the National Museum of Cartoon Art, the Art Museum Olten and others.[9]
References
- Gerhard Mack, "Comics, Cage and the Beatles," St. Galler Tagblatt, 30 August 2000.
- Biography at http://www.markstaffbrandl.com, accessed 5 October 2005.
- http://www.tagblatt.ch/ostschweiz/stgallen/stadtstgallen/tb-st/Locker-gemaltes-Netzwerk;art186,4212305, accessed 18 Mai 2017.
- Th. Emil Homerin, Umar Ibn al-Farid, Sufi Verse, Saintly Life. New York: The Classics of Western Spirituality; Paulist Press, 2001 pg. 5.
- http://www.sharkforum.org/sharkpack.html#brandl%5B%5D, accessed 14 September 2007
- http://badatsports.com/archives/, accessed 14 September 2007.
- http://www.drgreatart.com, accessed 18 May 2017
- http://drgreatart.libsyn.com, accessed 18 May 2017
- Th. Emil Homerin and Konrad Bitterli, Mark Staff Brandl: Panels Covers and Viewers, Artist Catalogue, Thurgovia Switzerland, Kunstraum Kreuzlingen Press 2003.
External links
- Mark Staff Brandl (official site
- Dr Great Art (second official site)
- "Mark Staff Brandl fan club". Archived from the original on October 27, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2010.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
- Sharkforum, Art Critical Blog Magazine Site
- Interview with Brandl on Bad at Sports podcast
- Interview with Brandl on Comic Book Talk Radio podcast
- Print interview with Brandl on Myartspace