Mark Dion

Mark Dion’s work examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge, and the natural world. The job of the artist, he says, is to go against the grain of dominant culture, to challenge perception and convention. Appropriating methods of collecting, ordering, and exhibiting objects common in archaeology, field ecology, and other disciplines, Dion creates works that question the distinctions between objective (rational) scientific methods and subjective (irrational) influences. The artist’s spectacular and often fantastical curiosity cabinets, modeled on Wunderkammern  of the 16th and 17th centuries, exalt atypical orderings of objects and specimens. Dion also frequently collaborates with museums of natural history, aquariums, zoos, and other institutions mandated to produce public knowledge on the topic of nature. Dion has exhibited internationally in approximately 200 solo exhibitions, including at Perez Art Museum Miami and Museum of Modern Art, New York, along with over 400 group shows. His work is in the collections of the British Museum, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.