Granlund's still lifes are humorous and thoughtful expressions of being an American, especially as it relates to food. In this exhibit his smaller Sinkside Compost Series is represented, a collection of images of his food scraps in a container by his kitchen sink. His larger, more complex still lifes of edible and non-edible objects are here as well.
Mark Granlund's landscape paintings continue his exploration of the fundamental issues of experience, particularly with regard to a Northern Minnesota landscape. Granlund’s work is about the point of convergence between experience and construct, the metaphysical landscape where energies of a scene are distilled into patterns, layers and shapes. As the experience of Nature is a layering of sensory input, Granlund's large canvases portray the bodily perception through a progression of paint handling: washes, fields of color, impasto strokes, and glazing and scumbling. As the viewer stands before the canvases, the eye always finds another layer, another moment of detail or enhancement, taking them deeper into the experience of the art.
Granlund's regular visits to the Minnesota/Canada border, to explore the landscape of his father's childhood, have forged an attentiveness to its unique combination of water, rocks, trees and sky. In his paintings he is recognizing the energy patterns that are kindred between body and rock, thought and sky, feelings and water, all in the presence of a witnessing spirit.
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