Mark Crawford is an abstract painter currently living in and working in Brooklyn. Born in Chicago, Il, he received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Painting and later attended the Yale School of Art, earning an MFA in Painting and awarded the Phelps Berdan Memorial award for Distinction in Painting. Later he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. His current work focuses on simplified color relationships and minimalist space and asks the viewer reflect on the perceptual process within the totality of the gallery space and how this process affects the viewer’s larger sense of being, or sense of spirituality. Although the paintings’ surfaces are relatively flat and optical, they are often surprisingly tactile and reflect the artist’s decision making process as he builds and maps the paintings’ compositions. This process gives the works a physicality that balances the intense opticality of the colors and the ways in which these colors interact.