Cover | Mark Stock

Reverie #4 (2008, oils and acrylic on canvas). Image courtesy of Modernism Inc., San Francisco. Mark Stock’s paintings connect viewers to the euphoria, loneliness and  sometimes fatal entanglements of romance. Often melodramatic and tinged with irony, Stock’s images illustrate love’s power to provoke our best and most illicit behavior. In this new series of paintings, Stock’s interest in prestidigitation manifests in the open-ended mystery of images. Connecting in a  dream-like fashion, the images allow the viewer to capture some of the magic embedded in the mundane. Born in Germany in 1951 where his father was  serving in the U.S. Army, Stock lived the transient childhood of an Army brat and landed in California in 1976. He is represented by Modernism Gallery, 685 Market Street, San Francisco. Stock’s show Reverie opens at Modernism on Thursday, March 13, 5:30 to 8 p.m. and will run through May 3.