MARK MESSERSMITH
Mark Messersmith is an artist whose work depicts the battle for habitat and survival, both between humans and animals and between the animals themselves. With his large sculptural canvases, Messersmith creates a narrative where animals, insects and plants are in constant struggle. The struggle is often with the natural cycles of life and the food chain but more noticeably against the onslaught of human expansion. His oil paintings contain a frenetic energy of flora and fauna mixed with logging trucks, oil refineries, and apocalyptic cityscapes. Messersmith is professor of art at Florida State University, where he has taught since 1985. He has received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the State of Florida four times. He has also received two Ford Foundation Fellowships, two fellowships through the National Endowment for the Arts/Southern Arts Federation, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation award.
A CONVERSATION WITH mark messersmith AND DR. amy von lintel FACILITATED BY ALEX GREGORY, AMOA CURATOR OF ART
A virtual tour of the Mark Messersmith Installation at AMoA
Mark Messersmith, Unlearned or Forgotten, 2020; Oil on canvas, 87x65 in. © Mark Messersmith: Image courtesy of the artist