BIOGRAPHY
Visual Artist Mark Holthusen is best known for creating images that push boundaries. With a career that spans photography, motion, theater and digital innovation, Mark's work contains a relentless elegance that extends from his painterly imagery to his graphic animations.
From album art to music videos, Mark has created distinctive work for performers including Roger Waters, American Music Club, The Tiger Lillies, 16 Horsepower and The Dodos. In 2009, Roger Waters and Sony Music asked Mark to rethink traditional stage design for the debut of Waters' opera, Ça Ira. Over 120 of Mark’s photographs served as the opera's sole visual narration and were met by critical acclaim. In 2012, Mark and The Tiger Lillies collaborated on a performance of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which the Telegraph declared "a haunting evening’s entertainment full of ethereal grace. [...] Holthusen's animation is gorgeous."
Mark’s award-winning work has been lauded by Communication Arts, Graphis, American Photography, and PDN. Mark has also won the IPA Photographer of the Year Awards for both Advertising and Music.
AWARDS
PDN Photo Annual: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008,2011.2013
PDN PIX Digital Imaging :2004, 2006, 2007, 2008
Graphis Photography Annual:2006, 2009,2012
Lurzer’s 200 Best Ad Photographers:2009
IPA/Lucie Awards International Advertising Photographer of the Year: 2008
International Photographer of the Year Award - Music:2008
International Photographer of the Year Award - Product:2008
Create Magazine Best in Category-Advertising 2008
Hasted Hunt Gallery - Best In Show: 2008
Communication Arts Advertising Annual: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008,2012,2015
FESTIVALS
Brighton Fringe Festival: England UK
Bergen Arts Festival: Norway
Adelaide Arts Festival: Australia
Wellington Arts Festival: New Zealand
Dusseldorf Festival: Germany
BAM Festival: Brooklyn, USA
Temps d'Images: Paris France
REVIEWS
RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
"The solidity of these materials and the intensity of their colours help build depth, a magical illusion paying homage to the mechanics of theatre but on a scale that could never normally be achieved" The Guardian
"with Mark Holthusen’s video animations projected on a gauze in front of them a screen behind. The effect is almost seamless" The Telegraph
The band really do appear to be under the gorgeous turquoise sea, in a fiery, red-hot hell or mixing it quayside with the salts. In the very best sense of the phrase, you don't know where to look. Broadway World
"Mark Holthusen must take major credit for his amazing animations and designs projected on to front and back scrims, giving a 3D effect to the ninety-minute production, which is faithful in its own way to the Romantic Gothic, supernatural tale." British Theater Guide
"American visual artist Mark Holthusen to create a show that lingers between a Terry Gilliam-esque baroque film and a music concert." This is Cabaret
"Designed by Mark Holthusen, a three-dimensional and eerily realistic animation sees screens, props and pre-recorded footage fly across the stage, putting the audience into a state of awe." The AU Review
LULU: A MURDER BALLAD
It’s that sort of night, with the trio making Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds look like a bunch of choirboys. The Leeds List
"designed with flair by Mark Holthusen to create a world that is always just out of kilter, with its bent lamp-posts and sinister, skewed windows." The Guardian
"This is not the snooty, snobby world you may have envisaged; this is dirty, scary and rebellious." The Good Review
"the eye is constantly drawn to the brilliant designs of Mark Holthusen, always on the move, often lop-sided, drifting in and out to provide a pictorial link to Lulu's travels or an atmospheric commentary" Whats on Stage
THE RIVER BRIDE: OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
The humble but effective set much also be mentioned. Gone are the days of the roll-of-wallpaper backgrounds dropping from the ceiling behind the actors to set the scene on stage. River Bride perfected the use of projections on a white curtain, curved in a convex semicircle, so as a fishing boat drifted down the Amazon, the night sky floated with it. The minimalistic, yet functional stage gave the impression of simple, practical living, leaving ample room on the stage and in one’s mind for the unfolding drama.
Rouge Valley Messenger