MWF
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| MWF | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mark Flake |
| Also known as | MWF |
| Born | 1960 |
| Genre(s) | Avant-garde |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, artist |
| Label(s) | Wood Records |
| Website | Official Website |
MWF is a pseudonym of Mark Flake born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1960. MWF is a painter and sculptor, but is best known as an avant-garde musician.
His surreal and expressionistic oil paintings have been exhibited across the United States, and his graphic art appears on album and compact disc covers throughout the States and in Europe and Australia, primarily on releases from the Wood Records avant garde and outsider music label which he founded, and with which he has an on again/off again relationship.
He has appeared on more than fifty albums and compact discs. His early releases were homemade cassette tapes released by his own cassette only label, Wyndam Garage.
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[edit] His Music
In 1999, he founded Wood Records and gave compact disc releases of his back catalog, and has continued to release his own works at the rate of approximately two discs per year. The music runs through a wide variety of stylistic categories that includes everything from folk and experimental rock, to avante garde jazz, punk and noise, to serious chamber compositions and music concrete.
MWF is also known for a number of albums that parody other styles including metal and hip-hop. Radio Revolution described his work as "the perfect blend of Leonard Cohen and Captain Beefheart", but he has most often been compared stylistically to The Residents and to Frank Zappa.
His best known recording is probably Selling Grit (1997), a more or less satirical pop rock album. As a performer, he is best known as an electric guitar soloist and improviser, but has also released acoustic guitar works similar in style to the later works of John Fahey, albeit with a more sinister tone. As a guitarist, he has been part of a number of music ensembles, including the Blenders, the Willards, EllenM, and most recently the Ants. His own live group, the MWF trio, has had a shifting line-up that has included performance artist and cornetist Barry Arthur and harmonica virtuoso Bhopal Whitaker. He has also produced a variety of collaborative works with artists such as San Francisco guitarist Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Indiana multi-instrumentalist Zed Salt, and North Carolina experimentalists The Optimysticals. In 2008, he worked as half of the duo, Wonderhell, with Equadorian percussionist Emmanuel Sortito.
[edit] His Label
His Wood Records music label has given release to albums by many artists from the U.S. and Europe, most notably Sweden's Johnny J and Italy's LAM. Flake has also appeared on a variety of tribute albums from other labels such as Blod Records of Canada's Tribute to the Eighties and a recent Roky Erikson tribute.
[edit] Art
His paintings have been compared stylistically to those of the [German Expressionists] and to the Surrealists, particularly to works by George Grosz and Max Ernst. They can also be characterized by a rich impasto and muted colors, particularly black and white mixed with earth tones.
His sculptural works are mainly found object pieces in the manner of Marcel Duchamp and temporary installations reminiscent of the Fluxus movement. The content of his art, particularly his early work, has primarily focused on a unique ability to find beauty and hidden meaning in the mediocre and banal. His more recent work, since 2000, has been somewhat more colorful, more overtly political, and harsher in tone.
[edit] Educational Work
Mark Flake is the Coordinator of Art/Design Programs at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, North Carolina.
[edit] External links
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