The work of Dutch artist Mark Manders is framed by an imagined architectural structure, a mental space he calls Self-portrait as a building. For each exhibition, Manders creates a provisional floor plan and realizes new rooms in his imaginary edifice. The fictional space contains, Manders’ thoughts, in his words, “stilled and congealed when they’re at their strongest.” The resulting artwork can take the form of beds, chairs, closets, a dog resting on a pile of drawings, or a fox suspended with a letter in its mouth. When figures do populate Self-portrait as a building they are not fully formed but arrested somewhere in their evolution. Various materials – rope, wire, string connect the assembled objects and concretize the direction and duration of thought.

Mark Manders was born in 1968 in Volkel, The Netherlands. He has had solo exhibitions at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2000); the Project Room, Drawing Center, New York (2000); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden Baden, Germany (1998); Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp (1994). He has participated in group exhibitions including Sonsbeek 9, Arnhem (2001); Venice Biennale (2001, 1993); Territory, Tokyo Opera City Gallery, Tokyo (2000); XXIV Sao Paulo Biennial, Brazil (1999). His work will be included in Documenta 11, Kassel, 2002, and in Contemporary Drawing: Eight Propositions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mark Manders lives and works in Arnhem.

Funding for this exhibition has been provided by the Mondriaan Foundation, the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Toronto, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Ottawa, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.