BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
MARK JOHN SMITH’S – MAN MANY MEN
January 25th – March 18th 2018
Opening reception on Thursday, January 25th, 6-9 PM
*Bring a pen – this work needs defacing.
The Bureau of General Services – Queer Division is proud to present Man Many Men, a solo exhibition of new works by artist Mark John Smith.
Press release
Press disease
Press release
Press please
British gay
Language
Dyslexia*
Every day
*sic
sick
six
In a series of new interactive and immersive works, Smith questions the conflicting lexicon of the everyday in relation to spaces of intimacy. His work explores the manner in which prejudice and bias are enacted through the self – via both high and low relief implementations of façade.
Man Many Men is comprised of elements imported from the entertainment industries, inviting visitors to employ all senses in an experiential tapestry that fuses language, gesture and identity. This is a body of work that hurts, sleeps, cries, fucks, exhales, sucks, breathes, sees.
On February 15, join Smith for a walk-through of the exhibition. Why not snuggle down as we invite you to embed yourself in the creation of new confessional and constructed narratives? There’s always a need for a ‘duvet day’.
In support of Man Many Men, Mark presents Blue Blue Balls, an intimate and jarring publication featuring images and text lifted from within the artist’s personal devices. The book features an accompanying essay by Matt Whitman – artist filmmaker and faculty at Parsons School of Design.
“We become complicit in a kind of ‘Freudian slip’. Smith slowly points us outside of the safe assumptions built within language and toward something a bit more sinister. The mistake, in its innocence and earnestness is, in fact, a reminder of our role as viewer and violence of assumption.”
Copies of the book will be available at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division for the duration of the artist’s show.
Mark John Smith is a British artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and BA Hons Degrees in Fine Art and Art History from The University for the Creative Arts in the United Kingdom. Mark is a founding member of Franklin Collective and currently serves on the advisory board of Rutgers University’s Design Thinking program. Last year Mark exhibited with Franklin Collective at Petzel Gallery, Manhattan, NY in group show WE NEED TO TALK…. In November 2017, Mark launched JML50, The Reading Room 2017, and The Placards 2017, new publicly commissioned works currently on view at the Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library. In mid-2018, a feature length documentary following his work on JML50 will be released.