Artist Mark Stockton works on a portrait in the "100 People" series, during a live public drawing session in the Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.
Join The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation for a conversation between Mark Stockton and Mary F.E. Ebeling about Mark Stockton: 100 People, an exhibition of the artist’s newest body of work currently on view in the Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. This in-person event will take place at the Annenberg Center and will also mark the release of the exhibition publication, in which Mary F.E. Ebeling has contributed an essay titled, “Representation and Slowing the Infinite Scroll.” The publication will be available and free for attendees.
- Tuesday, March 22, 5:00pm
- Arts Lounge at the Annenberg Center
Advance registration is requested prior to arrival. An online registration form is available at the link below. (Google Form)
Mark Stockton: 100 People will be on view February 15–May 31, 2022, with one hundred works installed throughout the public spaces of the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, filling the main Arts Lounge as well as the galleries adjacent to the Zellerbach Theater.
For more information, please visit the exhibition microsite.
Health and Safety
All guests will need to complete a PennOpen Campus Screening* prior to or upon arrival. A green PennOpen Campus pass, proof of vaccination**, a valid photo ID*** and a double mask (layering a cloth mask on top of a disposable surgical mask) or a KN95/KF94 or N95 mask are required for entry. Face masks covering the nose and mouth must be worn at all times for all those over age two. Neck gaiters, bandanas, and masks with exhalation valves or vents are not permitted. Masks must be worn for the duration of the event and time spent inside the venue. Guests who refuse to keep their masks on will be asked to leave.
*For Penn staff, faculty, and students, simply show that day’s PennOpen Pass and your valid Penn ID.
**Proof of vaccination can include a physical card, photo of a physical card, or Bindle app. Those under age 12 must show proof of vaccination or negative results from a COVID-19 PCR test (saliva or nasal swab) taken within 72 hours of the event.
***Photo IDs are not required for children under 12, school IDs are accepted.
About the Speakers
Mary F.E. Ebeling
Mary F.E. Ebeling is an Associate Professor in Sociology and affiliate faculty in the Center for Science, Technology and Society, and Global Studies and Modern Languages at Drexel University. Her research examines the intersections of gender, race, class and digital technologies and algorithms, data privacy, health marketing and medical capitalism. Her book Afterlives of Data: Life and Debt Under Capitalist Surveillance (2022, University of California Press) examines data and debt subjectivities in healthcare.
Mark Stockton
Mark Stockton is a Philadelphia-based artist. His drawings have been shown both nationally and internationally with exhibitions in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Beijing. Originally from the West Coast, he received his BFA from Oregon State University in 1996 and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from Syracuse University in 2000. Since 2009, Mark has worked with the independent arts organization Vox Populi as both a contributing artist and as a board member. His work is in many private and public collections, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the West Collection.
Mark currently teaches design and drawing at Drexel University. He lives in Philly with his wife, Cindy, his two kids, Otto and Iona, and his dog, Elsie. A closer look at recent works and projects can be found at his website.
About the Exhibition
Portraits have a complex history – they have the potential to venerate, to emotionally connect, to resonate into lived experience – they are also tools of commodification, objectification, and colonialization. Mark Stockton: 100 People examines who and how we venerate and connect.
What is representation in a larger sense? Using demographics to structure an equitable range of representation, and selecting subjects from a range of time periods – from the beginnings of portrait photography (1839) to the present – the ongoing series seeks to create an evolving canon of portraits, reflecting an expanded narrative of history and identity while centering ideas of inclusivity and subjectivity. Often sourced from recommendations and further reading, the selection process is opened-up beyond the limitations of the artist’s pre-existing knowledge base; the time-intensive drawings invite further reflection. Each portrait, connecting through an active gaze, looks back on the viewer, collapsing time and space divides, offering different points of connections to different people.
“We are so excited to be able to present such an ambitious and important project,” says Sachs Program Executive Director John McInerney. “Mark’s portraiture is striking in its ability to draw you into his subjects, who represent a wide range of perspectives and voices.”
Mark Stockton: 100 People is the second exhibition to be featured in the Annenberg Center’s Arts Lounge, a new hub for the creative community at Penn and part of a $2M renovation of the Annenberg Center’s public spaces made possible by a generous gift from alumni Keith and Kathy Sachs.