Mark Bovey
Mark Bovey is a printmaker interested in that medium’s expressive and theoretical potential. Following his completion of a BFA (1989) and a B.Ed. (1996), both from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and an MVA in Printmaking from the University of Alberta (1992), he has taught in various colleges across Canada, and exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Bovey’s practice combines traditional printmaking (intaglio, woodcut, lithography and screen-printing) with print installations, incorporating inkjet and digital video projection – a practice that references and incorporates the history of printed forms. Drawing on philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard and Joseph Beuys, he explores our relationship to knowledge, in an increasingly unstable world and an “ocean of information”, always in a state of flux and decay. Suggesting a shifting repository of knowledge, some of his works literally represent an open book, comprising faux-book fragments – life-sized sections of antique botany books, for example – overlaid with new illustrations. He sees printing as a way of collapsing time, combining traditional and the latest technologies, and blending the real, the image, and the simulation. In some of his installations, a kinetic, time-based element is introduced via LED projections.
Since 2004, Bovey has been a print-making instructor at NSCAD University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has held solo or small-group exhibits at SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, as well as in Kelowna, Kingston, and Toronto. His work has represented Canada internationally in juried biennial and triennial exhibitions in 17 nations worldwide, including Taiwan, Korea, Russia, India, Poland, Hungary and Romania. His work is housed in Canadian, American and international collections.
Bovey’s practice combines traditional printmaking (intaglio, woodcut, lithography and screen-printing) with print installations, incorporating inkjet and digital video projection – a practice that references and incorporates the history of printed forms. Drawing on philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard and Joseph Beuys, he explores our relationship to knowledge, in an increasingly unstable world and an “ocean of information”, always in a state of flux and decay. Suggesting a shifting repository of knowledge, some of his works literally represent an open book, comprising faux-book fragments – life-sized sections of antique botany books, for example – overlaid with new illustrations. He sees printing as a way of collapsing time, combining traditional and the latest technologies, and blending the real, the image, and the simulation. In some of his installations, a kinetic, time-based element is introduced via LED projections.
Since 2004, Bovey has been a print-making instructor at NSCAD University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has held solo or small-group exhibits at SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, as well as in Kelowna, Kingston, and Toronto. His work has represented Canada internationally in juried biennial and triennial exhibitions in 17 nations worldwide, including Taiwan, Korea, Russia, India, Poland, Hungary and Romania. His work is housed in Canadian, American and international collections.