"The newest installation in our lobby was partly because it is a great work of art, it is a new acquisition that we have never shown before, and because it has great resonance and pertinence to our current exhibitions. But what I didn’t mention previously is that it now also stands as a quiet homage to a great artist lost. She was an essential part of my personal art historical training and exposure to contemporary art." - Darryn Doull, Curator, Exhibitions and Programs.
From a long and successful career, Kelly Mark is often remembered for her work with neon. It has become one of the artist’s signature frameworks.
Mark’s practice is wide-ranging and inquisitive, including sculpture, video, installation, drawing, photography, sound, artist multiples, performance and public interventions over the years. In a recent statement, Mark said that she responds to things and actions: “I have already had an intense preoccupation with the differing shades of pathos and humour found in the repetitive mundane tasks, routines and rituals of daily life. Hidden within these spans of time can be found startling moments of poetic individuation, and an imprint of the individual within the commonplace rituals of society.
nothing never wins also has a sister piece titled everything is interesting. The two works came about while touring around Toronto with Curator Jonathan Watkins who, at the time, was the Director of the Biennale of Sydney (1998). As the two passed through a shopping mall, they were surrounded by vulgar things. Innocuous things. Graceful things. “Everything is interesting,” Mark said: a throwaway line that became an epiphany, perfectly paired with nothing never wins. Does nothing ever win? And if so, when, and to what effect?
Together, everything is interesting and nothing never wins are considered “state-of-mind” pieces that reflect the sardonic wit and conceptual play that underscores much of Mark’s work. She generally finds herself feeling the opposite of these phrases–everything is not interesting, and sometimes nothing does win–and these “state-of-mind” pieces are reminders to weigh this other more optimistic view of the world alongside her natural predispositions and philosophical skepticism.
We invite you to visit our lobby and reflect on Darryn Doull's closing remarks as you view nothing never wins:
"In the bleakness of 2025, and the shadow of this great loss, it’s important to remember that nothing does never win. Even when left with what appears to be nothing, we remember all that has already been given, all that is left behind, and the ways that her absence will still manifest as presence, as memory and as affectation in all who have and will experience her work."
Biography:
Kelly Mark was born in Welland, Ontario in 1967. She currently lived and worked in Toronto and acquired a BFA from NSCAD (1994) and an Art Diploma from the Dundas Valley School of Art (1991). Her practice was not strictly defined by material and her work has engaged sculpture, video, installation, drawing, photography, sound, artist multiples, performance and public interventions over the years.
Mark exhibited widely across Canada and internationally, including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), The Power Plant (Toronto), Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), The Darling Foundry (Montreal), Musée d'art contemporain (Montréal); MSVU Art Gallery (Halifax), Bass Museum (Miami), University of Houston (Texas), Real Art Ways (Hartford), The Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), Ikon Gallery (UK), Dundee Contemporary Arts (Scotland), The Physics Room (NZ) and Netwerk Centre for Contemporary Art (Belgium), among others. Mark also represented Canada at The Sydney Biennale (1998) and Liverpool Biennale (2006). Her work is represented in the public collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, Canadian Foreign Affairs, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée d’art contemporain and many other public, corporate and private collections.
Text courtesy of Jennifer Bullock, Assistant Curator and Registrar, and Darryn Doull, Curator, Exhibitions and Programs.
Image:
Kelly Mark (Canadian, 1967 - 2025), nothing never wins, 2011, Neon and transformers on panel 101.6 cm diameter x 7.6 cm depth Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery Collection: Gift of Sandra Forbes and Stephen Grant, 2023. © Kelly Mark. Photo by Toni Hafkenscheid.
