MARK TENNANT

Mark Tennant  (b. 1950, USA) received his B.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and an M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art, New York City. His career bridges academic tradition and contemporary visual culture, marked by a sustained engagement with light, movement, and the human figure. His paintings are distinguished by dynamic brushwork and an uncanny use of light that often evokes the snapshot aesthetic of flash-lit Polaroid imagery while maintaining a deep connection to classical painting techniques. 

Tennant has taught and influenced generations of artists: from 1998 he served on the faculty of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, including as Director of Graduate Fine Art Painting in 2008-2009. He has also led museum copying programs at the Louvre, Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Legion of Honor, San Francisco — a tradition that underscores his commitment to rigorous study of historic masters. 

His work has been exhibited internationally, including multiple shows s at the historic Salon d’Automne in Paris. Tennant was awarded 1st Prize at ModPortrait 2016 in Spain, and his winning work entered the permanent collection of the Museu Europeu d’Art Modern (MEAM) in Barcelona, where he held solo retrospective exhibition in 2024, showing over 60 paintings. This exhibition highlighted his ability to synthesize classical sensibilities with a contemporary vision of urban culture and emotional depth. 

Tennant’s paintings are part of private and public collections across Europe and the US and continue to be written about in critical art press. His practice demonstrates a compelling dialogue between academic discipline and the visual energies of modern life, making him a distinctive figure in contemporary figurative painting. 

Tennant has been represented by Galleri Ramfjord since 2021.