Mark Wagner

Lancaster, Pennsylvania United States

Bio

Born at the tail end of thirteen children, Mark Wagner grew up rural-poor in the heartland of the United States. A life-long remedial reader, Wagner was attracted to art at least partially due to its light reading load. Wagner almost totally missed the '90s... distracted not just by drinking, sex, and drug use, but by esoteric experiments into collage, assemblage, and publishing. A formative 13 years in New York City have added a healthy dose of urban cynicism to his folksy midwestern charm. Now thoroughly middle-classed, he lives with his family in Lancaster Pennsylvania... playing with the kids and hatching plans for the downfall of capitalism.

Statement

“I’ve got the dumbest job description in the world. Every day i go to work and i cut up money. Like, if i told people my job was punching myself in the face, it would probably sound just as believable. And then some fan would chime in and say, ‘But he punches himself in the face so good... here, check this out!’ It’s like the parody of a real job. At times it’s every bit as tedious as the most tedious office or manufacturing job.

I mean, the work is sometimes repetitive and boring... not boring to look at but boring to make. But that’s OK because i’m just the humble servant of my viewers... trying to show them a good time. Trying to show them something exciting made from something banal. Demonstrating through behavior a healthy disregard for money and its trappings.”

Limited Edition Prints

In the artist's own words

"This series playfully explores the symbolism of hands as a way to define what is real. In dreams, our subconscious often improvises details based on memory and expectation, leading to surreal or distorted perceptions. One common method for distinguishing dreams from waking life is by looking at our hands—something that often appears strange or inconsistent in dreams. By regularly examining the details of your hands while awake, you build a habit that can carry over into your dreams. When this happens, it can trigger the realisation that you’re dreaming, giving you the ability to consciously influence and navigate the dream world."

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In the artist's own words

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Original Artworks

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More Phantom Tigers and Parallel Papers artists

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"Television is becoming a collage - there are so many channels that you move through them making a collage yourself. In that sense, everyone sees something a bit different."

David Hockney
in conversation with Paul Joyce.
1988