China Marks was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri.
She earned a B.F.A. in Sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute and and an M.F.A. in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1976, she moved to New York City.

She now lives and makes art in Long Island City, NY, making process-directed drawings and one-of-a-kind books. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums in the United States and Europe. She has received numerous grants and fellowships, most recently a 2011 fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, which also named her a Gregory Millard Fellow.


 
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
   
2011 Sewn Drawings of China Marks
  Visual Arts Gallery, University of Montana, Missoula, MT
   
2010 Sewn Drawings of China Marks
  Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Faslls, MT
  Schoolhouse History & Art Center, Colstrip, MT
  Emerson Center for the Arts & Culkture, Boseman, MT
   
2009 Sewn Drawings
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
   
  Everything Old is New Again: the Sewn Drawings of China Marks
  Cole Art Center, Stephen F. Austin State University,Nacogdoches, TX
   
2007 Let Me Show You the World: the Sewn Drawings of China Marks (catalogue)
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
     
2006 Fabrications
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
2004 New Work
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
2003 Corporeal Threads (catalogue)
  O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston Downtown, Houston, TX
     
1998 Solo Installation: Who Killed the Queen? (catalogue)
  Part Four of the Parallel World
  Tomasulo Gallery, Union College, Cranford, NJ
     
1997 Drawings and Paintings (essay)
  Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO
     
1994 Is There a Circus on Mars?
  Large Scale Drawings (catalogue)
  Trans Hudson Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
     
1991 Solo Installation: Sacred Precinct,
  Part Three of the Parallel World
  Petrosino Park, NYC
     
1990 Angel Fool Prophet King (catalogue)
  Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
     
  Fifteen-year Retrospective (catalogue)
  The Rabbet Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
     
  Recent Works on Paper
  Johnson and Johnson Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
     
1989 Solo Show (catalogue)
  Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ
     
1987 Solo show
  Coup de Grâce Gallery, Hoboken, NJ
   
     
  Solo Installation: A World Made Flesh,
  Part Two of the Parallel World (catalogue)
  The Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
     
1986 Solo Installation: Intimations of a Parallel World
  Two Two Raw Downstairs, 22 Wooster Gallery, NYC
     
     
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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2011 Infinite Mirror: Images of American Identity (catalogue)
  Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
     
  Art Cart: Saving the Legacy—The Exhibition (catalogue)
  Macy Art Gallery, Teachers College, Columbia University, NYC
     
  A Novel Idea
  Hampton Gallery Incubator Project Space,
  U Mass Amherst, Amherst, MS
     
2010 Pages: Books as Medium, Catalyst & Venue
  Paragraph Gallery, Kansas City, MO
     
2009 Pretty, Strange
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
  Threads: Interweaving Textu[r]al Meaning
  Center for Book Arts, NYC
     
2007 The Beast in Me
  Pelter Gallery, Greenville, SC
     
  Rare Birds
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
  Free Play
  The Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY
     
  Group show
  Charlotte & Phillip Hanes Art Gallery at Wake Forest University
  Wake Forest, NC
     
2006 Threads of Memory, Margaret Mathews-Berenson, Curator (illustrated essay)
  Dorsky Project Gallery, Long Island City, NY
     
  Stilled Life
  The Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY
     
  Fun!
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
  New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma's Doily (catalog)
  Contemporary Craft Museum, Portland, OR
     
  Fractured Fairy Tales
  Asian American Arts Centre, NYC
     
2005 A Selection of Works from the Luise Ross Gallery
  Andrea Rosen Gallery, NYC
     
  New Art, New York: Reflections on the Human Condition (catalogue)
  Trierenberg Holding, Traun, Austria
     
2004 2004 Queens International (catalogue)
  Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY
     
2003 Gallery Group
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
2002 Me Myself & I: Self-Portraits
  George Adams Gallery, NYC
     
  Drawings, 2002 (catalogue)
  New Jersey Center for Visual Art, Summit, NJ
     
2001 Artists Respond
  George Adams Gallery, NYC
     
2000 Fast: Five Years at Grand Arts (catalogue)
  Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO
     
  25th Anniversary Exhibition (catalogue)
  City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ
     
  The Color Line in the 21st Century (catalogue)
  City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ
     
1999 The Art Formerly Known as Prints: 1999
  Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
     
1998 Biennial: Lines of Direction (catalogue)
  Ben Shahn Galleries at Wm. Paterson University, Wayne, NJ
     
  Peep Show
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
1997 A Show of Hands
  George Adams Gallery, NYC
     
  Collectors Show
  Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
     
1996 Out of ‘Toon: Another Look at Art & the Comics
  George Adams Gallery, NYC
     
  Extensions: Large-Scale Drawings
  Luise Ross Gallery, NYC
     
  Black and White Sculptors’ Drawings (catalogue)
  Marymount Manhattan College Gallery, NYC
     
  Body Language (catalogue)
  Art Museum, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
     
1995 20th Anniversary Exhibition (catalogue)
  City Without Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ
     
  Curator as Artist/Artist as Curator (catalogue)
  Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, NJ
     
1994 1994 National Drawing Invitational Exhibition (catalogue)
  Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
     
  Passages in Sculpture: Six Sculptors
  The Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ
     
1993 Three Hundred Years of Art in America
  Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
     
HONORS AND AWARDS
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2011 Fellowship in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts, Gregory Millard Fellow
  New York Foundation for the Arts
     
  Residency, Anchor Graphics, Columbia College, Chicago, IL
     
2006 Grant, The George Sugarman Foundation, Inc.
     
2005 Fellowship in Printmaking/Drawing/Artists' Books
  New York Foundation for the Arts
     
2003 Artist-in-Residence, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
     
2002 Grant, The George Sugarman Foundation, Inc.
     
1994 Mid Atlantic/NEA Regional Fellowship (Works on Paper)
  MidAtlantic Arts Foundation
     
1993 Arts Fellowship in Graphics (Drawing)
  New Jersey State Council on the Arts
     
  Purchase Award
  Esseff Foundation for the Arts
     
1989 Printmaking Fellowship, funded by the New Jersey State Council
  Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking, New Brunswick, NJ
     
  Exhibition Grant
  Artists Space, NYC
     
1988 Designation as a Distinguished Artist New Jersey State Council on the Arts
     
  Arts Fellowship in Experimental Arts
  New Jersey State Council on the Arts
     
1985 Arts Fellowship in Mixed Media
  New Jersey State Council on the Arts
     
1974-76 Graduate Fellowship
  The Danforth Foundation, St. Louis, MO
     
1973 Grant for the documentation of Tibetan bell-casting in Nepal and India
  The POINT Foundation, San Francisco, CA
     
1972-74 Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship to make sculpture in Nepal
  Institute for International Education, NYC
 
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Surface Design Journal: Off the Grid. Feature article by Glen Brown, "Multivalent Narratives: China Marks." Winter 2009 issue
 
Illustrated essay by Margaret Mathews-Berenson, curator, Threads of Memory, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects, 2006
 
FiberArts, feature article by Rhonda Sonnenberg, The Sewn "Drawings" of China Marks,
Sept.-Oct., 2005
 
Art in America, Jessica Ostrower, China Marks at Luise Ross, February, 2005.
 
Cherry Smyth, untitled essay, October, 2004 (unpublished)
 
The New York Times, Grace Glueck, Art in Review: China Marks. April 9, 2004
 
Meredith Bergmann, The Sewn Drawings of China Marks, February, 2004 (unpublished)
 
University of Houston-Downtown, O'Kane Gallery, catalogue, China Marks: Corporeal Threads, October 30 - December 11, 2003. Essay by Mark Cervenka.