Mark Perry
Born in 1959, Mark Perry was raised in Providence, RI. He started drawing before he was ten and began painting in his early twenties. As a young boy, drawing was a confidence builder, allowing him to see improvement with continued work. Although self-taught, Perry attended Evening Division, Portraiture and Life Drawing at Rhode Island School of Design. In addition, he studied drawing sculpture and painting at the RISD museum. During his twenties he worked as an Electrical Draftsman for an Architectural Firm in Providence.
In 1989, at the age of twenty-nine he moved to New York City. Through the 1990’s he spent time drawing at The Spring St. Studio and The Society of Illustrator’s while working as a studio painter in the Garment District. In 1996 he left this field to be a fulltime artist.
Perry divides his time between Springs, NY. where he makes large oil on canvas works and Miami Beach, Fl. where he makes smaller acrylic works on paper. In 2022 he had his first museum show at The Coral Gables Museum.
Nothing is a waste of time is a mantra I keep in my head.
Knowing that results, be they good or bad will come from work.
My inspiration comes from nature, my surroundings, Art History
and Contemporary Art. Studio chores can segue into painting.
The task of documentation, photographing the work, seeing it
edited, in groups, opens possibilities or directions.
My current oil on canvas practice has a through-line of scale,
application and palette. After years of feeling that I must paint one
thing or idea I’ve accepted my varied vision. This new group has a
few themes: Imagined Landscapes, Pattern, Geometric
compositions, Abstract and Representational works.
This painting process is also used for my acrylic works on paper
practice. Studies of objects, often in repetition. Still-life Tableaus,
designated by painted bamboo frames around the subject,
Abstract landscapes from memory, Abstract mark making and
repetition in pattern, stencils. One such stencil, ‘Flower motif in
Pattern’ consists of four petals around a center dot, repeating
petal to petal in grid formation"
— MP
Vertical Homage to the Fauves, 2025, oil on canvas, 60” x 36"
Redacted Landscape, 2025, oil on canvas, 89” x 78”
Pattern 3, 2025, acrylic on paper, 24” x 18”
Landscape 2, 2024, oil on canvas, 24” x 30”
Pattern 1, 2025, oil on canvas, 94” x 86”
Pattern 2, 2025, oil on canvas, 95” x 77”
Abstract 1, 2025, acrylic on paper, 24” x 18”
Abstract 2, 2025, acrylic on paper, 24” x 18”
Landscape 1, 2024, oil on canvas, 22” x 28”
Happening, 2025, oil on canvas, 45” x 42.5"