Mark Mothersbaugh

Most of Mark Mothersbaugh's life has been dedicated to his most prolific music endeavor,  DEVO—a college art project that blossomed into a career for the Akron quintet.

DEVO is widely known and respected as one of the most important bands to emerge from the 70's & 80's. Starting with their debut LP in 1978, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, DEVO continued to release nearly 20 albums over the next 20 years, and spread their controversial message about the devolution of the human race to a worldwide audience.

With DEVO, Mark was able to showcase his artistic abilities on a large scale, and to millions of people. Through their films, videos, costumes, LP covers, stage shows, and printed materials, Mark and DEVO forever altered commonly held preconceptions of how a rock band should function in popular culture.

Mark's love of art started early in his childhood, just after it was discovered that he was extremely nearsighted and legally blind. His first correctional glasses offered Mark a new view of the world, inspiring his obsession with imagery and illustrations. His first works, which he began creating in the late 60's and into the 70's, consisted of many different mediums, including rubber stamp designs, ink illustrations, screen printing, decals, and mail art. He participated in local showings, and received recognition for his work.

During his downtime on early worldwide tours with DEVO, he began illustrating on postcards to send to his friends, which he still creates, and has been creating every day for over 30 years; A very obsessive habit which still yields anywhere from 1 to 25 new images per day. These cards were originally created as his personal diaries, and were never intended for public viewing. That all changed when Mark decided to share his postcard works in his critically acclaimed solo shows during the 80's & 90's, and then with his gallery tour in 2003 titled HOMEFRONT INVASION!. This marked the beginning of many solo shows to come.

"Rugs! Rugs! Rugs! The Visual Art of Mark Mothersbaugh" will be on display from January 7 thru January 31, 2012.