Mark Engel is a contemporary artist who navigates the boundaries between the material and the spiritual through his layered and fragmented figures. His paintings highlight how individual experiences, emotions, and connections contribute to an inherently fluid and transient identity.

Mark received his BFA and MFA from San Jose State University and is a professor at Mission College in Santa Clara, Ca. He has been awarded multiple artist residencies through the California Arts Council and Arts Connect. His work has been shown in numerous museums and galleries across the US and is in many private collections.

Rooted in transformation, my work examines identity as a fluid construct, reflecting the ever-changing motion of selfhood. I create figures in a state of perpetual flux, shaped by the interplay of external forces and internal experiences, and embody the evolving nature of the human self as it adapts and changes over time. My work invites viewers into a realm where the boundaries of the self are porous, unveiling the intricate beauty and complexity of human existence as a constantly shifting mosaic.

CV

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Triton Museum, August 2025, Santa Clara, Ca

Know Future Gallery, Shapeshifters, January 2025 San Jose, Ca

Vargas Gallery, Constellations, March-April 2024, Santa Clara, Ca

group

2025

Aedra Fine Arts, Silent Edge, February 2025

Baton Rouge Gallery Center for Contemporary Art, Surreal Salon 17, January 2025

2024

Artsin Square, Beyond Boundaries, group show, Nov. 15 - Dec. 15 2024

Artsin Square, Embrace Of Madness, group show, Jan. 8th - Feb. 8th 2024

2023

Vargas Gallery, Art Faculty Exhibition, Sept.-Oct. 2023

Art Fluent, Inner Sense, online exhibition

Limner Gallery, New York, A Show of Heads, Oct. 12 - Nov. 4th 2023

Dodomu Gallery, Lines and Other Forms Exhibition, June-July 2023

Create Magazine, Alchemy Exhibition, April 2023

2022

33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago, Liberating the Flesh, July 15th - Sept.2022

PAL, Palo Alto, It’s only Human: Figurative Exhibition, June 2022

Art Room Gallery, Portrait, April 2022

Hilliard Gallery, Kansas City, The Figure in Contemporary Art, April 2022

RIWS Gallery, Rhode Island, Celebrating Color, Jan.-Feb. 2022

Vargas Gallery, Santa Clara, 2d or not 2d

2021

Michael Rose Fine Art, Provence, RI, Form and Shape: The Figure in Contemporary Art

2019-2008

Triton Museum, Statewide Competition 2D

Vargas Gallery, Faculty Show

Euphrat Museum, Faculty show

Art Ark gallery, Cross Pollination II

Art Art Gallery, Cross Pollination I

De Saisset, Chain Reaction

Triton Museum, Beyond the Surface

McAfee Corporation, Art of Leroy Parker and Mark Engel

Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Oakland, group show

Publications

Artianne Magazine Edition 1, Summer 2024

Artsin Square, Edition 4, Fall 2023

Create Magazine, issue 39, Fall 2023