Mark McGowan (performance artist)

For other people named Mark McGowan, see Mark McGowan (disambiguation).

Mark McGowan
McGowan in 2013
Born9 June 1964
Clapham, London, England
EducationCamberwell College of Arts (BA)[1]
Known forPerformance art, video blogger, social commentator, political activist, installation art, shock art

Mark McGowan (born 9 June 1964) is a British street artist, performance artist, film maker and public protester who has gone by the artist name Chunky Mark and more recently The Artist Taxi Driver.[2] By profession, McGowan is a London taxi driver and occasional University speaker and arts tutor. McGowan is known internationally for his performance art including shock art, street art and installation art, and as a stuntman, internet personality, video blogger, social commentator, social critic, satirist, political activist, peace activist, and an anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-capitalist anti-monarchist and anti-power elite protester. Under the artist name "Chunky Mark", McGowan entered the mainstream news in the early 2000s for his unconventional, satirical, sometimes comedic and/or ironic, and often absurd approach to public protest and demonstration. Chunky Mark conducted hundreds of performances in the UK and dozens around the world, stirring up some international attention, further debate on what "art really is", controversy; and both support and mockery alike from intellectuals, the art world, private corporations, the police, the military, the tabloids and the public. Often McGowan has not applied for police permission beforehand.

McGowan abandoned the Chunky Mark persona in late 2010 and fully adopted the "Artist Taxi Driver" persona for his web blog on YouTube, where he films himself alone in his taxi between fares, often wearing dark sunglasses, and in which he rants passionately and emotionally about the news and issues of the day. The Artist Taxi Driver's official YouTube channel (still under the "ChunkyMark" name) by 2013 had thousands of videos made by McGowan, with almost 30,000 subscribers, and his most popular video viewed 220,000 times.[3]

  1. ^ "Profile: Mark McGowan". Archived from the original on 22 October 2013.
  2. ^ "StArt Magazine". Startmag.co.uk. 5 February 2012. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  3. ^ Sarah Morrison (19 August 2013). "Mark McGowan: The 'Artist Taxi Driver' fuelled by rage at the corruption of modern life". The Independent. Retrieved 13 April 2014.