Mark Preston (Tlingit) was born in Dawson City, Yukon in 1960. He began studying silver carving under renowned Gitksan artist Phil Janzé while attending K’san in Hazelton, BC. He then began learning the techniques of wood carving. Preston is a multidisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media. His contemporary pieces are inspired by minimalism and abstraction.

Preston recontextualizes Northwest Coast formline shapes by making precise cutouts into panels, thus turning traditional shapes into negative space. His minimalist, all-white motif symbolizes clarity, peacefulness, and open-mindedness. In this same vein, many of Preston’s pieces are purposely left untitled to allow for open interpretation of their meanings.

Mark Preston cites European masters Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci as early influences, though works by Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Northwest Coast artists like Bill Reid, Robert Davidson, Roy Vickers, and Ted Harrison, have served to influence his more recent works.

Preston’s work is in both private and public collections, including the Yukon Permanent Art Collection.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

• 2018
  – Filling the Void, Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse YT
  – White Noise, Focus Gallery, Arts Underground, Whitehorse YT
• 2016
  – Void, Fazakas Gallery, Vancouver BC

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2018
  – Papier Art Fair, Fazakas Gallery Booth, Arsenal, Montréal QC
• July 2017 – January 2018
  – Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native Art, Anne and Loren Kieve Gallery and Fritz Scholder Gallery, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), Santa Fe NM
• 2017
  – Great North, Fazakas Gallery, Vancouver BC
• 2016
  – Art Toronto | Toronto International Art Fair, Fazakas Gallery Booth, Toronto ON
  – Divergent Convergence, Fazakas Gallery, Vancouver BC
• 2015
  – Metamorphosis: Chris Paul and Mark Preston, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria BC