Mark Nilsson earned a BFA at the State University of New York, Purchase College in 2010. In
2011 he received a New York Foundation for the Arts grant for two artist residencies in Europe. In 2012, Nilsson returned to the United States and began painting portraits on west 53rd street, near The Museum of Modern Art. A 2012 New York Times article, Mark Nilsson, the starving Artist Outside MoMA’s Doors, featured his project. Since 2014, he has traveled and painted extensively in Europe and Asia. He speaks and writes Chinese, and currently splits his time between New York and Taiwan. The Journal of Wild Culture published an article about Nilsson in 2018, Tracking Mark Nilsson: Portrait of a Painter as a Young Man.

馬克・尼爾森，2010年自美國紐約州立大學帕切思分校取得學士學位。2011年獲紐約基金會提供補助赴歐洲參與兩個藝術駐村計畫。2012年回到美國，開始在紐約現代美術館附近的西53街上為人畫肖像。2012年紐約時報上曾有一篇文章題為〈馬克・尼爾森: MOMA門外的飢餓藝術家〉(Mark Nilsson, the starving Artist Outside MoMA’s Doors) ，報導了他的創作計畫。自2014年起，他開始在歐洲、亞洲各地旅行作畫，自學中文說、寫，目前居住往返於紐約、台灣。2018年Wild Culture 月刊上刊登了一篇關於他的報導，題為〈追蹤馬克・尼爾森:一位年輕畫家的肖像〉(Tracking Mark Nilsson: Portrait of a Painter as a Young Man)。


Art Statement 創作自述

I make paintings from direct observation, mostly portraits and landscapes, using full-bodied acrylic paint with no added medium. I work rapidly with loaded brushes, one mark after another. I'm constantly active, either moving brushes around in sweeping or stabbing gestures, pushing mounds of paint on my palette to make room for more paint to be squeezed out, squatting down to clean brushes in a bucket of water, or cutting a container of paint in half to get out the last remnants. I often slam my brushes when a painting is going badly. By the end of a painting, my clothes, my palette, my hands and arms, and the ground around me will all be a complete mess.

In Chinese, the phrase shǒubǎijiǎodòng (手擺腳動) literally means moving your hands and feet. It is also used figuratively to express searching for understanding in a foreign language. I think the act of making a painting has a lot in common with 手擺腳動.

我透過直觀創作，題材主要是肖像和風景，使用濃厚的壓克力顏料，沒有附加其他媒材。使用沾滿顏料的畫筆，一筆一筆快速畫上，過程粗獷豪邁。要麼揮筆橫掃，要麼提筆點刺。調色盤上沒空位放顏料時，直接把成堆的顏料推開；要洗畫筆時，蹲下就是一大水桶；甚至把外包裝給剖了，把內裏的顏料拿來用；創作走樣時，筆刷也可能遭受池魚之災。畫作完成後，我的衣服、調色盤、手、臂、周圍地面都會變得一團亂。

在中文中，「手擺腳動」字面上是移動你的手腳，但也用來比喻不同語言在溝通時的比手畫腳。我認為一幅畫的創作與手擺腳動有很多共通之處。