Mark Bennett
Artist-in-Residence

Concordia University, Montreal
University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg

Nunatsiavummiut-Newfoundlander and graphic designer Mark Bennett is the 2022 Artist-in-Residence, a joint appointment between Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project at Concordia University and aabijijiwan New Media Lab at the University of Winnipeg. Mark is from western Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) and currently based out of Tkaronto, Ontario (Toronto). His practice is rooted in graphic design but explores other mediums such as printmaking, code, moving images, and sound. The primary focus of his work is about the exploration of his mixed identity, developed from ongoing questions and conversations with his community and family about fitting in, and lack thereof. Mark has a full-time commercial design practice collaborating with artists, galleries, and cultural organizations, and is a part-time undergraduate architecture student at the University of Toronto. One of Mark’s most recent projects includes the publication and exhibition graphic design for INUA, at Qaumajuq-Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Mark kicked off his residency in the fall of 2021 by designing the logo for the 2022 Inuit Studies Conference: Auviqsaqtut based on an existing work by Jimmy Kamimmalik. Mark premiered his new work, I’m Tired (2022), at the University of Winnipeg’s Gallery 1C03 during the Inuit Studies Conference, where he and Inuit Futures Mentor Mark Igloliorte gave an artists talk alongside curator Franchesca Hebert-Spence. I’m Tired is a vinyl wall art installation that reflects on burnout within the arts, explores the importance of digital communications as a tool for community building in the absence of in-person gatherings, and underscores the vital need for critical discussions around identity, community responsibility and institutional pressures.