About

  Many people ask, "Whatever happened to Mark Prent?"  Well, Mark Prent is alive and well, living and working in Vermont (USA).  He remains a Canadian citizen.  Someone began circulating the false rumor many years ago, that he was living in self-exile in Germany .  This myth has often been repeated in unauthorized articles and web-lore. Nothing is further from the truth.

  In 1975, Mark went to Berlin , West Germany on a major international grant, the Guest Artist in Berlin Program of the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), where he resided with wife, Susie, for nearly two years.  While living in Germany , he had two major solo exhibitions in German museums.  Following a brief return to Canada , Mark returned to Europe in 1978 for  a major retrospective exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam .  In 1983, he moved with his family to Vermont .

  Mark Prent is still making sculptures, but his materials-of-choice have changed from polyester resin and fiberglass to pigmented silicone "skins" over gypsum-polymer "skeletons."  The technique involved is similar to the signature method that he developed in the early 1970's with polyester resin,  that of builiding-up multiple reverse layers of translucent pigmented material to achieve a believable vitality in the cast positive.

  Apart from producing sculptures for exhibit, Mark  is also creating sculptures specifically for use in his performance work.   These performances are, for the most part, one-time events which are recorded as video or film vignettes.  Often, the performances are too elaborate to be repeated or performed anywhere other than on the Prent family premises.  For example, they may take place entirely underwater or involve the partial destruction or change of the sculptural figures during the performance.  These performance pieces represent a new collaborative relationship with his son Jesse Prent, who is a filmmaker.  Some of these performances are as disturbing as Mark's early sculptural work.