Markus Rudolph Holtby
Artist
Biography/Statement
Markus divides his time between his art practice and his building and design career in New York. Markus co-founded the new artist enterprise StartaArta, a start up artist curatorial and exhibition organization in New York City with fellow like minded colleagues. He grew up in Toronto, Canada, and has been living and working in New York for many years. He has a MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and is a registered architect.
Markus works in a variety mediums engaging conventional ideas rooted in design and construction. For him art at its best blurs the line between reality and expression, function and culture. His work critiques the physical expression and performance of common built space, or functional infrastructure. This infrastructure is the foundation upon which the structure of society and the economy is built, often literally. Fundamentally his art practice is critical of these built systems within the context of culture and politics.
In addressing these built systems Markus' critical expression draws on familiar tropes. The work may be understood as a type of expanded medium that is manifested across multiple artistic disciplines. The resulting art, a product of shared experience within the physical framework of built systems, is both fresh and sentimental.
Curriculum Vitae
Exhibitions and Installations:
2022 Jigsaw Snap, Starta Arta Gallery, NYC
2021 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Equity Gallery, An Intangible Habitat, New York, New York
2020 Lankai Art Museum, Blue Dialogue: Unexpected Encounter Be- tween Young Artists of East and West, Anshan, China
2019 Delaware Contemporary Museum: Art Loop, Wilmington Delaware
2019 Satellite Art Show: Performance is Alive, New York City
2019 DCTV, Now That’s What I Call Love, Chinatown, New York City
2018 Satellite Art Show: Magic Plastic Lounge, Art Basil Miami, FL
2017 IT’S HAPPENING, Public Performance, Central Park, New York
2017 Sculptors League, Metal Sculpture, Governors Island, New York
2017 Cathedral of St. John the Devine, Sculpture at the Cathedral, New York, NY
2017 St. Martin Episcopal Church, Bronze Arts for Bronze Bells, Harlem, NY & Williamsburg Bronze Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Bartow Pell Mansion, Reflections on Nature, Centennial Garden Sculpture Exhibition, Bronx, NY
2016 Wind Tower (collaborative sculpture), Van Cortland Park, Bronx, NY
2016 Leaves of Grass, Riverside Park South, New York City
2015 Phyllis Jacob Harriman Gallery, Forgings: The Blacksmith Sculptures, New York, NY
Education:
2017-2019 School of Visual Arts: MFA Fine Arts: Sculpture, Installation, Performance
2013-2017 Art Students League of New York: Sculpture, Mixed-Media
1994-1997 University of Maryland: Master of Architecture
Awards/Grants/Residency:
2017-2019
Merit Scholarship, School of Visual Arts in New York
2017
Conservation Associate, Arts and Antiquities, New York City Parks Department. New York, NY
2015/2016
Model to Monument Scholarship and Grant: Jury awarded, two monumental scale sculptures development and execution. The sculptures Leaves of Grass and Windtower were displayed in Riverside Park South and Van Cortland Park for 12 months each.
2014
Night-Shift Residency, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden, Scotland, (Funded by the Scottish Arts Council)
1995 Travel Fellowship, University of Maryland School of Architecture, for the Study of Vernacular Architecture in the Anatolian Plain, Turkey
Teaching/Curating:
2020-current
Co-founder, and Curator of StartaArta, a cultural exhibition and artistic platform. Flatiron District of Manhattan.
2017- 2019
Teaching Assistant, Sculpture, School of Visual Arts
1995-1997
Teaching Assistant, Architectural Drawing, University of Maryland School of Architecture
Bibliographies:
Print Media Julia Montepagani, “Embracing the Process: Sculptor Markus Holtby Navigates the World of Public Art”, Atelier, Spring 2017. 17
“Outdoor Public Art Worth Seeing” , Time Out New York, September 2016.
Online Media Emma Drew “The SVA Alumni-Run Satellite Art Show Returns to Brooklyn”, SVA Features, September 26, 2019
Sarah Cascade “Don’t Miss New York’s 20 Hottest Public Artworks This Summer: This art is worth venturing out to see”, Artnet News, August 18, 2016