Mark Younkle
450 Harrison Avenue, Studio #324
on Instagram on Flickr on LinkedIn
Mixed Media Collage, Drawing, Painting, Photography
Mark Younkle is frequently referred to as an “artist’s artist” by his peers, but that ought not infer difficulty in understanding his handsome body of work. The obvious antecedents for his art are the collages of Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Höch, as well as the lesser known, but similarly framed artist’s artists Anne Ryan and Hannelore Barron. But Younkle brings his own twist to the medium of collage. He is drawn to material nearing obsolescence, former emblems of our rapidly changing culture. One can look at his work and recognize telltale words from derailed personal journals, unsent letters and typewritten poems, as well as autobiographical ephemera such as dated travel itineraries and entertainment ticket stubs. He reconstructs an identity through his collages. The viewer is guided through the assembled material by its internal logic, which frequently evokes circuitry or knotted and entwined geometrics — choked and claustrophobic spaces on the verge of imploding.
As a Traveling Scholar from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Mark Younkle has exhibited his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He has also been invited to show his work at other museums in New England, including the Fitchburg Art Museum, and the Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University. His work is in the permanent collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York City. He has exhibited widely in galleries in the greater Boston area, including Krakow Witkin Gallery, HallSpace, the Chandler Gallery at Maud Morgan Arts, and the Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts. His work has recently been included in online exhibitions at Jason McCoy Gallery and Denise Bibro Fine Art, both in New York City, and at Salem State University. He is the recipient of a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
