Statement & Bio
Awarded BADA Art Prize 2023, London Biennale Sculpture Award 2023, The Aesthetica Art Prize Futures 125 2022 & 2024
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"Your sculptures look like 3D paintings carved out of the air." - Professor Suzie Hannah - NUA​
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Artist's Statement
Mark is a visual artist, working in a variety of materials both sculpturally and two dimensionally. His work connects to the balance he sees, in life, societies, nature or the philosophical. He is drawn to how through chaos, contrasts and extremes highlight our perceptions and reactions. How tensions, harmony, tranquility and energy jostle to strengthen the fragility of the worlds balance.
Marks practice has developed through creativity, innovation and knowledge, into a fine crafted conceptual abstraction. The process is intuitive and reactionary, throughout there are references of the human form and its movement. He talks of the need of fundamental skills, along side an incessant want to question, echoing his judo coaching philosophies.
There is an immediate beauty but delve deeper and there are questioning narratives on our lives today, evoking comments like; ‘it is so soothing and exciting at the same time’, and ‘from the moment I saw your work, I was totally mesmerised. It is the first time a sculpture takes my soul and goes that far. It is a mix between joy, dancing, and being free, in a time that is full of anxiety.’
Through connecting different materials he expresses the complications of todays world, but always with a graceful aesthetic that oozes hope with a smile. Recently he has become more aware of how his work not only expresses a human condition but also the void/space around us, and how the unseen has always been vital to his work.
Mark’s uniquely creative approach has gained him a worldwide following of collectors. In 2023 Purllant was awarded the Sculpture Prize at the prestigious London Biennale. An event that saw over a hundred artists from 80 countries take part. Later that year he also won the BADA Art Prize which was judged by world renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor CBE along with sculptor Philip Jackson and Founder and President of the Cartier Foundation Alain Dominique Perrin, and musician and collector Jools Holland. This success followed being listed as part of the Aesthetic Art Prize Futures 125, which he has since also achieved in 2024.
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​Biography
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Mark has always drawn, painted and made stuff since he can remember. The positives of being the son of a teacher and a highly creative and inspirational upbringing. He puts his creative ability down to having developed the fundamental skills of drawing by constantly drawing, especially reproducing disney cartoon characters or perspective street scenes. As a kid he won a number of art competitions and had work displayed including at the age of 11 a piece of woodwork in an A level exhibition. The accolades continued with national awards and commendations. After grade A's in both O-levels and A-levels he went to Lincoln Art and Design College to do his foundation year. Here he was opened to other thoughts but he maintained an interest in furniture design which led to a direct entry to Buckinghamshire College's prestigious 3d design degree course. Sadly Mark found this not to be the course or environment for him and he found new interests in working as a chef in London and abroad.
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After having travelled Mark found himself quite accidentally making bric a brac for pubs and clubs around the UK and Europe. He found this to satisfy his creativity and his need for variety in work. This developed enormously and the company he started became well known with designers and architects throughout the UK for designing, and making the unusual, from huge glass fibre dragons for nightclubs that shot lasers out of its mouth to design and building themed interior pirate rooms at Alton Towers Hotel. At its height the company was building historical displays for museums and heritage sites to furniture that was sold in Harrods. Marks ingenuity and creativity meant they could design and build what others couldn't for many different types of commercial and private clients around the world, for leisure venues, theme parks, visitor attraction, museums and heritages sites, retail, hotels, offices and many other individual site specific situations.
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Now instead of working to other peoples briefs, Mark has carved out a direction as an Artist and a Sculptor developing his own ideas but using all that knowledge and experience of the 20 years in commercial art and design. Three years ago he returned to education and completed his MA in Fine Art winning the Vice Chancellors Award for his final exhibition piece.
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Today, Mark marries his time as an artist with that of a Judo coach, a sport, martial art that he says has helped him in so many ways and subconsciously is reflected in his artwork today. He likes to consider his work with many layers, an immediate beauty or captivating presence that stands alone, but can then be delved deeper into the more layers you take away, depending on the viewers own ideas. But all the time Mark wants to make well made, creative and individual art that will help to inspire all that see it.
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Mark has work in Commercial and Private collections across the world and has exhibited locally and nationally. He is open to a small number of commissions per year and particularly is interested in potential public space sculpture which he feels lends itself to his current ways of thinking.