Mark Innerst counts among the most important painters of a contemporary art between figuration and abstraction.
Mark Innerst was born in York/Pennsylvania in 1957. He completed his education with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Kutztown State College (Pennsylvania) in 1980. Then the young artist went to New York and soon became an established name in the local art scene. He was active in "The Kitchen" and the "Artists Space", where he came in contact with many like-minded people.
In New York Mark Innerst made his popular city views, for instance the series "Brooklyn Views." Mark Innerst increasingly concentrated on the motif of (city-) landscapes, which he approached in a formally more or less abstract manner. At times it cannot be clearly said whether a picture follows a abstract or figurative intention. Dominant design features are vertical, strip-like compositional structures that arrange the image surface in a highly aesthetic manner. River views and New York's skyscrapers are among Mark Innerst's preferred motifs, titles like "Entering Bryant Park" are exact indications of the view’s location.
After 25 years in New York Mark Innerst turned his back on the metropolis. From that point on Mark Innerst has alternatingly lived in Philadelphia/Pennsylvania and Cape May/New Jersey. Latest works by Mark Innerst do no longer depict New York's skyscrapers, but rather the beaches of Cape May.
Works by Mark Innerst are in possession of acclaimed museums, among them the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Mark Innerst lives and works in Philadelphia/Pennsylvania and Cape May/New Jersey.