Mark Dion was born in Massachusetts in 1961. He received a B.F.A. and an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford School of Art, Connecticut in1986 and 2003, respectively. He also studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1982-84, and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program from 1984-85. He has received numerous awards, including the ninthannual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2001) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lucida Art Award (2008).

Throughout the past two decades, his work has been the subject of major exhibitions worldwide. Dion has also completed numerous public commissions during his career. His work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Tate Gallery, London, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Hamburger Kunsthalle in Germany, Harvard University Art Museums in Massachusetts, and the Israel Museum of Art in Jerusalem, among others.

Presently, he is a mentor at Columbia University in New York and co-director of Mildred’s Lane, an innovative visual art education and residency programin Beach Lake, Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife, the artist Dana Sherwood in New York City and works worldwide.