Offsite: Mark Lewis

The silent moving images of Mark Lewis’ latest films captivate audiences at Offsite, the Vancouver Art Gallery’s outdoor public art space. Using the formalist language of cinema to explore the experience of urban and natural environments, Lewis’ films both contrast and complement the surrounding cityscape where they are projected.

Offering a poetic view of mundane, everyday situations, Lewis’ non-narrative, slow motion pictures arbitrarily unfold on the screen, contributing to the viewer’s sense of indeterminacy. A program of new and earlier films from Lewis’ repertoire will also be projected during the course of the four-month installation.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1958, Mark Lewis lives and works primarily in the UK. He began his career as a photographer, but his interest turned to cinema in the mid-1990s. He has participated in solo exhibitions throughout Europe and Canada and in 2009 he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. Lewis currently teaches at Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London where he is also co-founder and co-editor of Afterall, a publication and research organization at Saint Martins.