> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.catapult-platform.art/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Mark Van Wagner Paints with Sand and Lets Time Do the Rest
- URL: https://www.catapult-platform.art/mark-van-wagner-artist/
- Published: 2025-05-15T10:00:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-01T18:41:32.000Z
- Description: Sand, pigment, erosion, patience. In conversation with Mark Van Wagner about material, time, and letting painting behave like geology. Interview with Di Franco
- Author: Di Franco
- Tags: Interview

## When Painting Starts Acting Like Earth

[**Mark Van Wagner**](https://markvanwagner.com/home.html?ref=catapult-platform.art) is a contemporary artist whose practice fuses natural materials like sand and pigment with conceptual rigor, creating textured, tactile compositions that feel both primal and deliberate. 

![mark van wagner](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/Mark-Van-Wagner-Studio-Picture.jpeg)

****Mark Van Wagner in his studio.** **Photo: @ceg619 — courtesy and permission of the artist.*

His work oscillates between abstraction and geological mapping, invoking the slow time of landscapes and the immediacy of gesture. 

Recently exhibited at[***Spark Art Fair Vienna 2025***](https://www.catapult-platform.art/spark-art-fair-vienna-2025-review-age-of-scrolling-pause/)**, with** [**Marquee Projects**](https://www.marqueeprojects.org/?ref=catapult-platform.art) ,Van Wagner’s pieces stood out for their grounded physicality and meditative density. 

![spark art fair ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/15-Spark-Fair-Installation-2025.jpeg)

****Mark Van Wagner: Installation view at Spark Art Fair 2025.** **Gallery: MARQUEE PROJECTS — courtesy and permission of the artist.*

Alongside group shows in New York and Berlin, his[***Interview***](https://www.catapult-platform.art/tag/artist-interview-contemporary-promising-artists/)with [***DiFranco*** ](https://www.catapult-platform.art/author/difranco/)adds a compelling dialogic layer to his evolving practice—one that blurs the line between painting and artifact, surface and sediment.

![mark van wagner](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/2-Mark-Van-Wagner_-Ozymandias_2023_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-recycled-cardboard-boxes_24x18x6-in.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Ozymandias** **, 2023** **Natural and pigmented sand on recycled cardboard boxes, 24 × 18 × 6 in* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

---

## Interview with Mark van Wagner and Difranco:  

**1\. What first drew you to incorporating sand into your artwork?** 

I considered what natural element would capture and define the most literal essence of material decomposition. Sand was the answer.

![long island biennale](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/18-Mark-Van-Wagner--Long-Island-Bienial--Hechscher-Museum--Huntington--NY-2022.jpeg)

****Mark Van Wagner, Long Island Biennial, 2024** **Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

**2\. Your art often includes recycled materials and found objects. How do these elements contribute to the themes you explore?**   
  
Boxes, sand and debris are easily available. They are simple, uncomplicated materials. When making the work, one of the things I like to remind myself of is how the creative process all began. 

![sculpture to watch](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/5-Mark-Van-Wagner_Cupola_2024_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-recycled-cardboard-boxes_20x23x7-in.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Cupola** **, 2024** **Natural and pigmented sand on recycled cardboard boxes, 20 × 23 × 7 in* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

![marquee projects](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/best-of-sculpture-now.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner: A closer look at the work.** **Seen at Spark Art Fair 2025 (MARQUEE PROJECTS) — courtesy and permission of the artist.*

For me, as a child, it was playing in the sandbox or at the beach, or building with basic wooden blocks. You can do so much with so little. 

Today, I want to keep that “beginner’s mind” attitude and let it permeate the work. 

Yet, on another level, these simple materials can imply more metaphorically profound themes.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/sand-sculpture-.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/contemporary-art-and-sand-.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Red Rock Terrain** **, 2024** **Natural and pigmented sand on recycled cardboard box, 19 × 15 × 2 in — wall sculpture* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

**3\. Many of your sculptures depict moments of impact and reverberation.** **How do you translate movement and energy into a static medium?** 

By slowly manipulating the boxes. I crush, twist and compress them. 

If the sculpture is made up of multiples one can adjust the stacked pieces to reference movement by turning one of the building blocks.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/6-Mark-Van-Wagner_-Green-Reef-Grief_-2022_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-cardboard-box_14x10x6-in.jpeg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/1-Mark-Van-Wagner_Subtitle-Zone_2024_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-cardboard-box_29x9x9-in.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Green Reef Grief** **, (left)** **Natural and pigmented sand on cardboard box, 14 × 10 × 6 in* \-- ****Subtitle Zone**, **(right)** Natural and pigmented sand on cardboard box 29x9x9 inches - Permission and courtesy of the artist

**4\. Impermanence seems to be a recurring theme in your work. How do you think your art captures or challenges the idea of things being temporary?** 

Well, with the material. If we examine a handful of sand, especially under a microscope, we see evidence of broken-down matter from man-made building materials, coral, bone, etc. Impermanence and erosion are inevitable in everything.

 A tree was once a tree and then either fell and turned into dirt or was cut down and milled into paper, which became a cardboard box, which became a sculpture, which someday will return to being dirt. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/contemporary-sculpture.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/artist-to-watch-2.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Plateau Story** **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

Ecosystems are all about cause and effect and how everything is affecting everything else and is in constant flux. My work alludes to ruins and geology and the evidence of the ephemeral.

**5\. Beach debris is an integral part of some of your mixed-media pieces. How do you choose what materials to use, and what significance do they hold?**   
  
Just to be clear: I’m not trying to make any kind of heavy-handed environmental statement by using the flotsam/debris. It’s just what we unfortunately now have to accept as part of the makeup of our landscape. 

![new sculpture artists 2025](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/9-Mark-Van-Wagner_-Bane-Terrain_2025_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-cardboard-box_17x8x6-in.jpeg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Bane Terrain** **, 2025** **Natural and pigmented sand on cardboard box, 17 × 8 × 6 in*

And weirdly, or more surprisingly, some of the colored plastic and glass that washes up onto some of the shores is quite beautiful after the ocean has done her job of trying to purify it. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/8-Mark-Van-Wagner_Two_2022_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-recycled-cardboard-boxes_13x13x8-in.jpeg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Two** **Natural and pigmented sand, debris, glue, and gesso on cardboard boxes, 13 × 13 × 8 in* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

**6\. You studied Art History and Urban Planning—how have these disciplines influenced your creative approach?**   
  
Once you’ve studied Art History it’s hard not to reference the artists of the past. And why not? There are so many great ones! 

As far as Urban Planning is concerned, I recently made an installation at an exhibit in Vienna where I grouped individual sculptures into clusters of 7, 9 and 11\. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/11-Mark-Van-Wagner_Rocky-Plateau-_2024_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-recycled-cardboard-box_19x12x10-in.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/mark-van-wagner.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Rocky Plateau** **, 2024** **19 × 12 × 10 in* First image: the work hanging solo. Second image: installation view at Spark Art Fair Vienna 2025, MARQUEE PROJECTS. **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

The effect resembled city pods, villages, or underwater archeology. The installation suggested a narrative that perhaps referenced a prehistoric habitation or fictional ruins from the future.

**7\. Your work explores existential cycles of destruction and creation. Can you talk about how you view these cycles in both your art and the world around us?** 

There’s really not much to say about this other than that’s life – the sooner you accept it, the less crazy you’ll be.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/13-Mark-Van-Wagner_Royal-Ruin_2024_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-recycled-cardboard-box_10x8x7-in.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Royal Ruin** **Natural and pigmented sand on recycled cardboard box, 10 × 8 × 7 in* **Courtesy and permission of Mark Van Wagner Studio*

**8\. Which art movements or artists have influenced your style and technique the most?** 

My God there are so many. But I’ll start with the impressionists or you could even say the pointillists. 

They were just starting to understand the physics and properties of light and express the dissolution of matter. I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago which was connected to the Museum. 

![mark van wagner interview](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/10-Mark-Van-Wagner_Red--Mine-_2022_natural-and-pigmented-sand-on-recycled-cardboard-boxes_16x13x4-in.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Red Mine** **Natural and pigmented sand on recycled cardboard boxes, 16 × 13 × 4 in* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

The Museum had in its collection Georges Seurat’s 1886 pointillist masterpiece, *A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.* 

Painting with points (pixels) is very conceptually related to using millions of sand particles to create one’s artwork.

![contemporary sculpture now](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/12-Mark-Van-Wagner_-Orange-Nugget_2023_natural-and-pigment-sand-on-cardboard-boxes_27x34x12-in.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Orange Nugget** **, 2023** **Natural and pigmented sand on cardboard boxes, 27 × 34 × 12 in*

Other movements that are important to me would include Dada, Arte Povera, and the Abstract Expressionists. Cézanne, Duchamp, Tàpies, Rauschenberg, Chamberlain, Penone, Tuttle, Hesse.

**9\. How does your art reflect on the human impact on the environment?**  
  
As beautiful and smart as humans can be they inevitably will destroy their place in the world.

![new faces in contemporary art](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/mark-van-wagner--artist.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner,** ***Flagger** **, 2024** **Natural and pigmented sand on cardboard boxes, 33 × 28 × 7 in* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

**10\. How do you see yourself evolving as an artist? Has your relationship with materials, themes, or creative process changed over time?**   
  
I think every artist wants to spend more and more time in the studio, pushing themself and their process. 

![spark art fair](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/spark-art-fair.jpg)

****Spark Art Fair Vienna — Solo presentation by Mark Van Wagner with MARQUEE PROJECTS** **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

![hechscher museum](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/16-Mark-Van-Wagner--Long-Island-Bienial--Hechscher-Museum--Huntington--NY-2024.jpeg)

****Mark Van Wagner, Long Island Biennial, 2024** **Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY* **Courtesy and permission of the artist*

Over the years my relationship with materials and process has always seemed to have evolved and I’m sure this will continue. 

[Mark Van Wagner | Artist | MARQUEE PROJECTSMark Van Wagner is an art curator and sculpture artist combining geometric and architectonic components while investigating both inner and outer landscapes.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/icon/favicon-11.ico)MARQUEE PROJECTSCart 0![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/thumbnail/LogoLargewithPerfectSpace-1.png)](https://www.marqueeprojects.org/artists/mark-van-wagner?ref=catapult-platform.art)

Mark Van Wagner - Marquee Projects 

Maybe one day I will complete works that can withstand the outdoors for respectable periods of time? 

![munchies art club](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/05/mark-van-wagner--artist-1.jpg)

****Mark Van Wagner in conversation with DiFranco on Munchies Art Club** **Photo: @ceg619 — courtesy and permission of the artist*

But, if I really examine the past in terms of my themes and ideas, they’ve been pretty consistent, and I imagine they will remain the same till I die.

**11\. What are your thoughts on the current state of art in the U.S.?**   
  
Anything is possible.

*Special thanks to artist Mark Van Wagner and to DiFranco for the insightful conversation.*

---

## More about Mark Van Wagner :  

[Mark Van Wagner![](https://static.ghost.org/v5.0.0/images/link-icon.svg)![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/thumbnail/OD_Cx4L0DnF_UbHZ.jpg)](https://markvanwagner.com/home.html?ref=catapult-platform.art)

Mark Van Wagner - Online

**Follow the** [**Artist Mark Van Wagner on Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/mark.van/?ref=catapult-platform.art)

---

## **More Artist Insights*? Interview with DiFranco?

Sign up to receive bold, honest, and inspiring conversations between artists and DiFranco—straight to your inbox.

Subscribe 

Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. 

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. [Privacy Policy ](https://www.catapult-platform.art/privacy-policy/)and [Terms of Service](https://www.catapult-platform.art/untitled/)

### Artist Feature – Mark Van Wagner

#### Based

Mark Van Wagner (Bellport, NY, USA)

#### Practice

Natural and pigmented sand, recycled cardboard, mixed media, adhesives.

#### Core Statement

*“Impermanence and erosion are inevitable in everything.”*

#### Context

Combines geological, architectural, and sociological observation through natural materials. Ephemeral, ecological, phenomenological approach emphasizing temporality and tactile decay.

#### Key Themes

Impermanence, Material Cycles, Geology, Transformation, Human–Nature.

#### Notable Works

- *Ozymandias* (2023)
- *Cupola* (2024)
- *Red Rock Terrain* (2024)
- *Bane Terrain* (2025)

#### Current Exhibition

Spark Art Fair Vienna (until May 2025)

#### Represented By

Marquee Projects, Bellport NY

#### Press

Artnet, Artsy, Artdaily, Chicago Tribune, NPR Radio, Hamptons Art Hub.

#### Links

[markvanwagner.com](https://markvanwagner.com/home.html?ref=catapult-platform.art) · [More Sculpture](https://www.catapult-platform.art/tag/new-sculpture-now/) · [New York Radar](https://www.catapult-platform.art/radar/)

#### Readers also interested in

- [Andy Goldsworthy](https://www.catapult-platform.art/artist/andy-goldsworthy/) – ephemeral environmental works in sand and stone
- [Vik Muniz](https://www.catapult-platform.art/artist/vik-muniz/) – material-based compositions exploring impermanence
- [Motoi Yamamoto](https://www.catapult-platform.art/artist/motoi-yamamoto/) – sand and salt installations about memory and cycles