Mark Francis first became known in the early 90s for his seductive paintings of magnified cells and microbes. Since then he has exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad, as a forerunner in Irish art, and a significant contributor to the recent boom in British art. While he has always remained slightly distanced from the brasher core of young British artists, he has nevertheless been a regular participant in landmark British painting exhibitions over the last decade. His unusual approach to abstract painting has found him a permanent place in the prestigious Saatchi and Tate collections, as his scientific art finds international acclaim.
Mark Francis makes paintings based on magnified images of microbiology, usually monochromatic, or with a disciplined colour palette, as in Orbital, within the parameters of large-scale canvases.
The individual cells are softly painted and seem to float just beneath the picture plane. This softness removes the stronger clinical connotations, allowing the paintings to become highly tactile objects as well as powerful abstract images. The paintings draw out the consequent ambiguity of enlarging such a tiny area of space, to the point where the scale makes the pictorial elements artificial and dominating.
Buy signed limited edition prints by Mark Francis at Opus Fine Art; the home of Contemporary art.