MARK STOCK'S HOLLYWOOD: UNCOVERED

November 2 – December 31, 2013

MARK STOCK HOLLYWOOD: UNCOVERED November 2 - December 31, 2013

Lora Schlesinger Gallery is pleased to announce Mark Stock’s HOLLYWOOD: UNCOVERED. This marks the artist’s first solo-exhibition with the gallery and his return to Los Angeles. HOLLYWOOD: UNCOVERED creates a world of intrigue with a female protagonist and a newly discovered mysterious hidden treasure at center stage. In his iconographic narrative style, Mark Stock depicts the alluring leading lady and the Hollywood sign, letter by letter in all its perplexity and glory. In addition to the letters there is an installation of a curious treasure box and a series of paintings in Mark Stock’s signature realist style that personify carefully selected film stills rendered in paint.

The exhibition tells a seductive story about the secrets of Hollywood in the language of art. One enters the gallery to find the sign fragmented yet recognizable, evoking the city’s past and an industry’s legacy. Layers of images within each painting serve as clues that help the audience to decipher the narrative created by the body of work, as if the audience is watching a cinematic film-noir unfold. The leading figure in his painting at the center of the exhibition acts as a character that is caught between our reality and a theatrical stage, creating an open-ended narrative filled with possibilities blurring the line between reality and illusion.

The paintings present a set of realities that, when viewed as a whole, complement each other like stills from the same film. Each letter of the sign is painted using different painting styles and techniques. The surfaces of some of the letters are constructed with squared patches of paint, existing in an abstract sphere reminiscent of Jasper Johns’ Flag. Using an encaustic method, the artist creates layers of history and time, burying iconic images of some of Hollywood’s most recognized stars on the surfaces and the backs of each letter, entombing the city’s notorious past. The surfaces of these letters are then contrasted with the landscape in which they stand, existing as abstract paintings in a familiar tangible land, creating an interplay between paint and image, abstraction and realism. His dramatic use of texture, light, shadow, and composition illuminate the iconic landmark, creating emotionally charged moments masterfully captured with paint.

Mark relocated from Tampa, Florida to Los Angeles due to a job offer from Gemini G.E.L., where he worked with artists such as Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and Robert Rauschenberg. He designed sets for the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, and was a student of ballet and modern dance. His work can be found in museums such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The National Gallery, and the Library of Congress. He is in private and corporate collections in addition to being collected by some of the most successful producers, directors and actors in Hollywood. Mark is also an accomplished jazz drummer and a clever prestidigitator.

CONTACT: Lora Schlesinger or Stephanie Mercado OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, November 2, 2013 4:30 – 7:00 PM GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday – Friday 10:00 – 5:30 p.m., Saturdays 11:00 – 5:30

The Box, 2013 oil on canvas 64 x 55-1/2"

H, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 55 x 60"

O, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

Observatory, 2013 oil and acrylic on panel 19-1/2 x 16-1/2" 26-7/8 x 22-7/8" - framed

The Butler's in Love, 2010 oil and acrylic on panel 20 x16 " 27 x 22-7/8" - framed

L, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

Night L, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

Y, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

W, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

Grauman's 2013 oil and acrylic on panel 19-1/4 x 16-1/2" 27 x 22-3/4" - framed

O, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

D, 2013 oil and encaustic on linen 29 x 23" 37 x 30-7/8" - framed

Mark Stock Born Frankfurt, Germany, 1951 Education St. Petersburg Junior College University of South Florida, Bachelor of Fine Arts Selected Public Collections Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, CA Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, NV Brooklyn Museum, NY De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, CA Library of Congress, Washington, DC Los Angeles Center Studios, Los Angeles, CA Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Speed Museum, Louisville, KY Tampa Museum, Tampa, FL University of South Florida, Tampa, FL Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers, NJ Set Design 1992 Los Angeles Chamber Ballet production of Sleepwalk Ballet Pacifica production of Personal Statements-Common Knowledge 1990 Los Angeles Chamber Ballet production of So Nice 1989 Los Angeles Chamber Ballet production of Dmitri 1988 Los Angeles Chamber Ballet production of Orpheus - A Ballet-Opera in One Act 1986 Los Angeles Chamber Ballet production of The Little Prince 1984 Playwright Nancy Barr's Johnny Dakota Writes It Down 1981 Rudy Perez Dance Company production of Tracers and Take Stock Scenic Art 1982-85 Painted scenery for films and television commercials Solo Exhibitions

2013 Hollywood Uncovered, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2012 Stage Stories, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2010 Oil Paintings, Sutherland Fine Arts, Ltd., New York, NY 2009 Short Stories, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2009 Drawings & Prints, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2008 Reverie, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2007 Survey Exhibition 1985-2007, Modernism West, San Francisco, CA 2006 Palimpsest, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2005 Illusions, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2004 New Paintings, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2003 Nightfall, Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2002 Teatro Zinzanni, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 2001 Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1999 Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL 1999 Suggested Evidence, New Paintings, Modernism, San Francisco 1997 A Double Life , Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1996 Mark Stock: Paintings and Designs 1986-1996 , University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 1995 Hollywood, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1994 Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1992 State & Costume Designs for the Theater & Other Works on Paper 1977-1992, Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1991 Susan Johnson Gallery, Tampa, FL 1990 Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1989 Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1989 Rosenthal Fine Arts, Chicago, IL Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1988 Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Modernism, San Francisco, CA 1987 Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1986 California Contemporary Artist 32 , Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA 1985 Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1981 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY 1980 University of South Florida, Tampa, FL Awards Distinguished Alumnus Achievement Award, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 1993 Publications Mark Stock: Paintings by Barnaby Conrad II