Pratt Institute

Personal URL

Education

M.F.A., Cornell University; Vessels of Transformation and Burden

Biography

After years of studying biology Mark C. Parsons shifted his focus to making sculpture. While finishing a BFA from the University of Massachusetts, the artist rebuilt a hurricane destroyed sailboat and subsequently spent 3 years sailing around the world. 30 countries and 30,000 miles later, he returned to the US and resumed life as a carpenter for two years before pursuing his MFA at Cornell University, where he was the recipient of the Jacob K. Javits National Fellowship through the U.S. Department of Education.

Teaching appointments at Cornell, then Pratt Institute and Hunter College brought Parsons to New York City. Parsons’ work ranges from large sculpture, to printmaking and large wall drawings. The work usually relies on collaboration during some portion of its development, and often brings artists or architects into its realization. Parsons thinks of these as portraits – of demographic or intellectual networks.

Parsons currently teaches and serves as Director of Production and Technology for Pratt Institute Architecture. Parsons has exhibited his work at the United Nations, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Provincetown Art Museum, the New Bedford Art Museum, and numerous private galleries in New York City and elsewhere.

He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.