Mark Reynolds

Mark Reynolds is an artist, geometer, and educator. He has worked with graphite, watercolor, pastel, ink, and mixed media for over sixty years, developing interpretations of traditional principles found in Euclidean and Philosophical Geometry. He creates geometric systems and harmonic compositions with various and often incompatible ratios to generate new relationships he calls “marriages of incommensurables”. These geometric drawings unite chaos and order in complex and intriguing drawings. Reynolds’ work demonstrates his point-of-view regarding geometry as an art form, and its interdisciplinary relationship with music, mathematics, architecture, science, nature, and personal discovery.

He states: “The presence of geometry everywhere inspires me. Geometry and numbers are, among other things, ordering systems found throughout the universe. Grids are related to geometry and numbers, and are themselves ordering systems. They can bring order to a space by defining the structure and energy within the limits set by that space. I am an artist, not a mathematician, but I know geometry is a bridge that can connect the two disciplines. For me, art and mathematics are two sides of a coin composed of art, geometry, and numbers. As such, geometry provides both the artist and the mathematician with an elegant and beautiful system that offers solutions to questions of space and time, and a way to order like no other.”

 

In addition to his passion for and pursuits in drawing, Mark's work includes geometric analyses of architecture, paintings, and design. He has presented his work at international conferences on art, architecture, and mathematics. His writing on these topics can be found in the Journal of Mathematics and The Arts, Springer/Nexus Network Journal, and "Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future".

 

Mark Reynolds has Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Art and Art Education from Towson University in Maryland. He also received an Andelot Fellowship to the University of Delaware for post-graduate work in drawing and printmaking. His drawings are in the permanent collections of the Biblioteca Comunale Leonardiana in Vinci, Italy, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Crocker Museum in Sacramento.  He is represented by Pierogi Gallery in New York City and Chandler Gallery in Mill Valley, CA. His work has been reviewed by ARTnews Magazine, The New Yorker, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, and New York Art Beat, among publications. Reynolds taught geometry for art, design, and architecture students at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for over twenty-five years. He retired from teaching in 2016, but continues to draw every day. Reynolds lives and works in Mill Valley, California.