MARC
PRATS
ARTIST STATEMENT
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My practice explores the consequences of social media and mobile devices upon our cognition. I see my works as post-digital representations of the human mind unfolding into a series narratives, which straddle the digital and analogue to discuss my generation’s experience with ubiquitous devices.
Those born before the 2000s entered a world that was free from widespread Internet, but this changed dramatically in just two decades. Many of us were forced to adapt to this development and can now easily navigate new media, yet we still remember simpler times with a certain nostalgia. It is perhaps this longing for the analogue that makes us more susceptible to psychological conditions associated with prolonged screen use. Such tensions, combined with the fact that I was born with a sight-threatening condition, which was worsened by exposure to screens during my upbringing, led me to want to explore how digital technologies mediate our lives and how their effects can be counteracted with art.
Many facets of the Internet, social media included, are designed to be appealing, enthralling, even addictive. They are made to capture our attention for as long as possible by presenting as much content as possible, leaving us no time to actually think about what we are taking in. My paintings and sculptural objects aim to subvert these mechanisms from within. They do so by captivating my viewers with the beauty and detail of the digital aesthetics I employ as well as by the ambiguous digital narratives that my work deals with, so that the consumption of the technological is slowed down and imbued with new, more profound meanings.
CV
Education
2019 - 2022
-MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2018 - 2019
-MA Arts and Culture, Leiden University, Leiden
2013 - 2016
-BA Liberal Arts and Sciences, University College Utrecht, Utrecht
Selected Exhibitions
2022
-'Life in Colour', The Room London Gallery, London
-Royal College of Art Degree Show
-'Emergence', The Room London Gallery, London
-‘After Dark’, Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers, London
-‘Selects Vol. 1’, London Paint Club - Hoxton Art Space, London
2021
-'Through the Mirage', Fitzrovia Gallery, London
-‘A Space to Hold the Gaze’, Liliya Art Gallery, London
-‘Still Alive’, MAPA Fine Art, London
2020
-‘Jam Session Part II’, Christian Marx Gallery, Düsseldorf
-‘Slipping the Net’, Robert Young Antiques, London
2019
-‘Venus’, Fundació Amics de la UNESCO, Barcelona*
2018
-‘Show 51: Our Souls to Keep’, Field Projects Gallery, the Internet
Courses and Residencies
2020
-‘Drawing Marathon with Graham Nickson’, New York Studio School, New York City
Collections
2022
-Simon Nixon Collection
Awards
2021
-Awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (First Grant, Painting), Canada
2019
-Short-listed for the Signature Art Prize, United Kingdom
-Long-listed for The Royal Award for Modern Painting, The Netherlands
Teaching Experience
2022
-Visiting Lecturer at Royal College of Art (Wandsworth Arts Fringe Mentorship Programme)
-Visiting Lecturer at University of Derby (Artist Talk- MA Curriculum)
-Visiting Lecturer at University for the Creative Arts Farnham (Artist Talk- MA Curriculum)
Publications
2021
-Vol. 113 Published by London Paint Club Magazine
-Issue 60 Published by Art Reveal Magazine
-Article Published by Art Blog Mad 54
* Solo Exhibition