Biography
Mark Fairnington was born in 1957 in London and studied at St. Martin’s School of Art from 1979 to 1981. His work explores an interest in the lineage of animal painting and its relation to the history of collecting within the natural sciences, probing the image of natural history specimens in collections, in storage and in displays. In 1988 Fairnington’s exhibition Heavier Than Air at the Imperial War Museum, London followed a two-year residency to research the Museum’s archive and collections. Since 2001 he has worked closely with the Natural History Museum, London and in 2002 undertook a field trip to their research station, Las Cuevas in Belize, which lies within a protected rainforest in the Maya Mountains. A major exhibition of Fairnington’s work ‘ Fabulous Beasts’ was mounted at the Museum in 2004. Fairnington has received awards from numerous arts institutions, which include London Arts, the British Council, and the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2012 Unnatural History, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Galerie Peter Zimmermann,Mannheim, Germany
2011 Flora, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin
2010 Bull Market, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk
2009 Private Collection, Galerie Peter Zimmermann, Mannheim, Germany
2007 Dynasty, Art Agents, Hamburg, Germany
2006 The Raft, Fred, London
2002 Dead or Alive, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
2000 Specimen, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2013 BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery
2011 Auction Room, Globe Gallery, Newcastle
2011 Drawing: Interpretation/Translation, The Drawing Gallery, Powys
2011 40 Artists – 80 Drawings, The Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Devon
2009 A Duck for Mr Darwin, Balitc Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom