THE CROWD SERIES
Mark Khaisman
manipulates tape to interpret mid-20th century crowds in an exquisite mosaic-like manner. By layering pieces of tapes, he reconstructs well-known scenes of crowds down to their basic volumes and shapes. His inventive use of the medium manifests a crowd determined to celebrate or contribute to social or political change in the United States. While these images sound familiar, the temperament of those large masses of people remains open to interpretation. The exact nature of the people stays a mystery as no expression can be made out on any face. Khaisman expresses an interconnectedness amongst the individual people and brings them together into something larger than themselves.

In his new work, Khaisman creates vivid tones of red, blue, and purple by staining masking tape with acrylic paint and then layering them as a collage, and occasionally with the use of nails. The image is then coated with an acrylic sealer to secure the work in place.

CHAIR SERIES | TAPE NOIR SERIES | BIRKIN BAG GLIMPSE SERIES
Mark Khaisman creates his works by applying layers of red, green, or brown packaging tapes on backlit Plexiglas panels in order to create areas of light and shadow that, viewed as a whole, compose images of recognizable persons or objects. Khaisman's subject matter comes from various sources, including art history, old movies, 20th-century propaganda art, and his photographs.

Mark Khaisman (b. Kyiv, Ukraine) studied Art and Architecture at the Moscow Architectural Institute, Moscow, Russia. Notable exhibitions include: Queens Museum, New York, NY; Visual Art Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany; BYU Museum of Art, Proto, UT; Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, NY; LeRoyer Gallery, Montreal, Canada; and more. He has been the recipient of many awards, D&AD Awards 2009 Winner in Illustration, NYF 2009 Print Bronze, CLIO Awards 2009 Print Bronze, and more and his works are found in the collections of Comcast Technology Center, Philadelphia; Brandywine Trust Collection, Philadelphia; British Airline Collection, London; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; NBC Collection, NY; Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany; West Collection, Philadelphia; MoMA, NY; and more.

Past Exhibitions