Mark Safan

Biography:

Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Mark Safan studied painting at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He continued his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute mentored by painter/instructor Sam Tchakalian. Later he studied at the Vancouver School of Art.
Wooed back to LA in the mid-1970’s he began his professional career as a
musician in Los Angeles recording for Warner Bros. Records and Elektra/ Asylum/ Planet Records while writing songs popularized by various recording artists. He also lent his voice to current movie soundtracks.
Moving to New York City in 1985 his work was introduced to the Galeriebrockstedt
where he began exhibiting as a gallery artist.

Exhibitions & Art Fairs:

Mark Safan’s Exhibitions included one person
shows at Galeriebrockstedt, Hamburg (1993) and Berlin (1993, 2003), as well as
one person shows at Köln Messe and Messe Düsseldorf (1993) and Galerie Kolon
(1993). In 1995 he received a grant as artist-in residence at Atelierhaus Pankow, Pankow, Berlin, including a one man show “Die Wolkin Hängen Schwer am Himmel:
Mark Safan’s Clouds”, 1995.

Exhibitions in New York include: “Abstract Eight”, 55 Mercer Gallery, 1995; “This Mess We’re In: Reflections on the Metropolis”, Pelavin Gallery, 2010, “A Field Guide to Getting Lost”, Pelavin Gallery, 2011, and “In Sight: Bruce Edelstein, Mark Safan, Fulvio Testa”, Terrazzo Art Projects, 2014, and Horizon Line, curated by David Humphrey and Susan Jennings, 2023. Exhibitions which included musical performance as well as painting include: “On the Wall/Off the Wall”, Elizabeth V. Sullivan Gallery, Art Students League, Vytlacil, 2012, and “Music Seen: Visual Artists Who Make Music” curated by Susan Jennings, LABspace Gallery, Hillsdale, NY 2017.
Mr. Safan’s work is represented in numerous private collections in Germany and the United States. From 2009 – 2016 he taught painting at The Art Students League, Vytlacil Campus, and The Residency at the Art Students League, Vytlacil Campus, Sparkill, New York.

Statement:

The paintings of Mark Safan represent the fortuitous mingling and occasional accord between the ephemeral and the material. Blue atmospheric skeins stand in sharp contrast to shards of distressed cardboard; while the one offers solace in a blue dream of illusion, the other insists on the fact, remaining, however, abstract and mute.