Infrastructures
Mark Bell
new paintings
February 13 - March 21, 2026
In conversation with Morley Shayuk and Mark Bell on Saturday March 7 at 1pm.
Paul Petro Contemporary Art is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Toronto-based artist Mark Bell.
Here is a text from the artist:
Infrastructures
Cell towers, sound walls, power lines and endless kilometres of temporary fencing. There is a certain beauty to these urban monuments whose forms are created wholly by their intended function, whether for communication, the transmission of power or simply to obstruct access.
This series of paintings evolved out of my observations around the city’s peripheral areas; places where the inner workings of our infrastructure are on full display. And at every turn the presence of the natural world is there butting up against the geometry of these human-built forms; hydro corridors are dotted with accidental forests and meadows while open storm sewers interrupt the landscape. These two parallel infrastructures are so thoroughly entwined it seems impossible to separate one from the other. -- Mark Bell, December 2025
MARK BELL (b. 1964, Toronto) is an Honours AOCA from the Ontario College of Art and Design (1984-1989) and received his Masters of Art from The Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, UK in 2009. He has exhibited his paintings across Canada in various artist-run centres and public galleries - including solo exhibitions at Cambridge Galleries (2023), The Art Gallery of Ontario (2003), and Mercer Union (1999) – as well as private galleries, with General Hardware Contemporary (2023, 2017, 2013, 2011, 2010), Paul Petro Contemporary Art (2010, 2009, 2008, 2007) and Jessica Bradley Art + Projects (2007). In 2004 he received the Artist Grant Award from the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts.
Since 2006 Bell has taught painting in Art and Art History, a joint program between Sheridan College and the University of Toronto at Mississauga.