Mark Sink Photographs 1975-2010: Encounters with the Past September 3, 2010

Byers-Evans House Gallery presents “Mark Sink Photographs 1975- 2010: Encounters with the Past”
DENVER—Mark Sink Photographs 1975-2010: Encounters with the Past, will be on view in the Byers-Evans House Gallery, located at 1310 Bannock Street in Denver, September 3 through October 31. A free opening evening reception from 5 – 9 p.m. on Friday, September 3, will be held in the gallery in conjunction with the Golden Triangle Museum District’s First Friday Art Walk.

The Byers-Evans House Gallery is pleased to present this sampling of photographs representing Sink’s 35-year career in Denver. Born in 1958, Sink’s photographic destiny was partly shaped by his family history. From a long family line of artists, Sink’s great-great-uncle was Samuel Finley Breese Morse, who is known as America’s “Father of Photography” and introduced the daguerreotype to this country in the 1850s. Sink’s great-grandfather was James L. Breese, a famous photographer who made waves in turn of the century New York. His mother is Denver painter Ann White.
Sink says when he received his first Diana camera as a child, his future was clear. After art school, the 1980s found Sink in the heady boom days of the New York art scene, experimenting with plastic toy cameras, working professionally as both a commercial and fine art photographer, and hanging out in Andy Warhol’s famous Factory scene. In the early 1990s, Sink returned to his hometown of Denver, where he worked with early digital cameras and created a series of still life photographs inspired by Old Master Dutch paintings.
The latter half of the decade brought Sink into museum administration, as he was one of the founding members of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and formed his own community based art center, Gallery Sink. Inspired by the pictorialist traditions of his great grandfather, Sink made traditional landscapes and cyanotypes, as well as camera-less photograms. Photograms are made by laying objects directly on photographic paper and exposing it to sunlight.
With the closing of Gallery Sink, the artist returned to making photography full time in the new century. Sink embarked on a new series with his partner, Kristen Hatgi, using a 150 year old lens to create dreamy collodion wet plates with the technology of the 1860s. All of these chapters will be on view in the Gallery with techniques ranging from photo silkscreen, Polaroid’s, cyanotypes, silver prints, gravure, collodion wet plate and digital.
In Mark Sink Photographs 1975-2010: Encounters with the Past, the diverse techniques, eras and experiments come together under Sink’s unifying vision of beauty. “I am a gushy romantic,” Sink says. “The theme of this survey is to show my obsession and passion for capturing beauty.” Sink’s work is in numerous museum collections as well as gallery solo and group shows in the US, South America and Europe. He is currently represented by G. Ray Hawkins in California, Robin Rice in New York, and Rule Gallery in Denver.
Snapshot

What: Mark Sink Photographs 1975- 2010: Encounters with the Past
Where: The Byers-Evans House Gallery, 1310 Bannock Street, Denver
When: Sept. 3 – Oct. 31. Gallery open daily, Mon. –Sat., 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Closed Sundays.
Special events: Evening receptions during the Golden Triangle Museum District’s First Friday Art Walks, Sept. 3 and Oct. 1 from 5 to 9 p.m.
Informal gallery talk on Photography Today, Oct. 2, at 11 a.m., Sink will use his own photographic timeline and provide insight into the techniques and stories displayed in the exhibition.
Cost: Gallery admission and all special events are Free!
Byers-Evans House Museum
Open daily, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Sundays.
Guided house tours 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Admission charged.
For further information, visit www.historycolorado.org/be or call (303) 620-4933.
History Colorado, the Colorado Historical Society, engages people in our State’s heritage through collecting, preserving, and discovering the past and providing perspectives for the future. Established in 1879, History Colorado is headquartered at the Colorado History Museum in Denver. This educational institution contains statewide historical museums and sites, educational programs, volunteer and membership opportunities, the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the Stephen H. Hart Research Library, and administers the State Historical Fund—a preservation-based grants program funded by limited stakes gaming tax revenues. Visit www.coloradohistory.org or call (303) 866-3682.