Brian Mark

You know how some people say they see Jesus in dental X-rays, plaster, toast, and, well, pretty much any other surface? Brian Mark's art is kind of like that. Mark makes downright ghostly images with acid on large pieces of stainless steel. His technique is a fantastically painstaking one. He puts different acids on a steel plate, then uses a blowtorch and dry ice to heat and cool them. Then, after doing many time-consuming layers of acid, he electroplates (the use of electric currents to apply a thin coat of a desired metal) gold or silver onto the plate. The resulting images are striking in their subtlety and playful with light. From different angles or under different light sources, Mark's works often depicts serene faces and bodies that shift and vary, enhancing their calm but slightly eerie feel. Forget searching for Jesus' face on a hunk of chopped wood or cat fur (no, seriously, those are actual things people have claimed bear the image of their savior), and go to Rogue Buddha to see Mark's art. Open Wednesdays through Saturdays.
Oct. 3-Nov. 15, 2008