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Mark Gerada was born in Sydney in 1968 to a family of Maltese immigrants. It was not until after completing a degree in architecture with first class honours (University of Technology Sydney, 1993) that he was first able to pursue his true desire and passion to paint. During this time he wrote a dissertation titled Painting to Theory and Teaching, worked in many architectural offices as a designer and worked with Herbert Ypma as a designer at Interior Architecture Magazine. He then lived in London and travelled throughout Europe where he wrote a scholarship paper titled Learning by Observing. On returning to Sydney in 1994, Mark worked briefly as a designer on the Luna Park project, and then decided to take a break from architecture so that he could concentrate on painting. To support himself financially he set up a hand painted tile business that ran successfully for many years. Mark experienced his first major breakthrough in painting when working with a group of experimental artists at Atellier Caminade in Brussels in 1996. His eyes were opened and he suddenly realised he would be doing what he loved for the rest of his life. Whilst pursuing this career, Mark was now illustrating for various magazines to support his work. He discovered that his painting could fuel ideas for illustration, and whilst meeting the challenge of editorial briefs, his illustration helped him to develop new ways of communicating ideas in painting. Mark illustrated regularly for Financial Review Magazine, GQ Australia, Belle, Panorama, Pacific Wave, The Bulletin, Gourmet Traveller and Taste (U.S.) He also undertook commissioned paintings for Baileys, Esprit, Deluxe and Associates, Eskimo Design, Space Furniture, and the VIP Lounge in Sydney International Airport. More recently, he created imagery for a post Olympic Homebush Bay, illustrated a book titled “Greening Sydney” with the New South Wales Government Architect Chris Johnson, and painted a new corporate image for Dimension Data’s Forum 12. He also painted a number of large private pieces, ranging from four to six metres in length, created paintings for the foyers of new apartment buildings (including the Norman Fosters’ Fraser Suites), and won the contract for a sculpture in the forecourt of Lend Lease’s new headquarters. In 2000/01 Mark’s paintings explored some of the reasons his family migrated to Australia from Malta after the Second World War. He abstracted the fiery skies that were the result of some of the fiercest bombing in history. Mark sourced from the landscape, the architecture, the light and the sea. In February 2002 Mark exhibited work on a much more personal and subtle level by looking at the houses his mother and father were born in, and the house that they established together in the western suburbs of Sydney where he himself was born and raised. In March 2003, Mark exhibited work that explored the journey his ancestors made to Australia from Malta. The bulk and form of the ships that brought the immigrants over the seas to a new world become a vehicle that carry enlarged photographs and letters that his grandfather created during the journey. The work raised issues of immigration and war, and subconsciously challenged Australia’s current selective attitude towards immigration and assylum seekers. Mark’s solo exhibition 2004 was titled “It’s all about us”, and was based on his experiences in New York City over the last three years. He makes an empathetic comment about the United States of America and challenges the everyday attitudes that have had such a devastating effect on the world at large. He completed four video installations for this exhibition that featured his own musical compositions. These installations sat beside large new paintings that consisted of painting over enlarged video stills. In 2002, Mark made music videos in London for MC Skeme and Seanie T. He co-wrote, co-produced, story boarded and shot a short film titled “Deer 64”, and in 2006 made videos for Tourettes and Coda. He is currently writing a feature film that will be filmed between Malta and London. Mark’s work captures the happenings and emotions of life. He sees the world as a multi-faceted place, so he tends to take on a very layered approach, using paint, found objects, typography and fabrics to create an overall composition. These documentations, along with a passion for music and film, and the theoretical ideas in abstraction that he developed in the early 90’s, synthesized in his last exhibition “If only I could sing”. Mark’s next exhibition, “Generation” will start in June 2007 at Saint James Cavalier in Valletta, Malta. His next show in Sydney will be “Mounds and Caves”. Mark has taught Illustration and Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney, and is currently teaching Visual Communication and supervising final year major projects in video. He works and lives in an old shopfront in inner city Sydney. SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2005 “If only I could sing”, Esa Jaske Gallery, Chippendale GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2006 Opening of the Sydney Writers’ Festival AWARDS AND PRIZES 1992 Byera Hadlee Architecture Travelling Scholarship |
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