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Mark Perlman

Mark Perlman’s art traverses the areas between the stillness of gesture and the moment frenetic activity ensues.  His monoprints and collaborative work produced at Aurobora are the distillation of these moments.  Scumblings and severe markings impregnate the compositions and are variously pushed back by color or brought to the surface through reductive printing techniques.  In some of his compositions, Perlman employs chine colle and encaustic applications which allows him to create veil-like qualities that work in counterpoint to the scarified imagery and foggy ink applications that cloud the edges of his works.

Working on various plates in the Aurobora studio, Perlman scored deep gouges and scoured partial surface areas with incisive tools.  He then inked these plates in limited palettes of algae green, ultramarine, sienna, and deep umbers, dragging ink from one area and wiping away another.  The artist worked each plate until saturated portions became clouded and smudge-bare while anemic sections slowly began accreting a gritty integrity.  Either by specific overprinting, employing reductive techniques, or by integrating areas with additional handwork, the experimental nature Perlman embraced while in the studio provided him with the needed undergirding to resolve each composition.