Mark Valenzuela

With a career spanning two decades, Mark Valenzuela is an Adelaide-based artist who works between Australia and the Philippines. Although his practice wilfully resists categorisation, ceramics is an enduring medium for Valenzuela and has functioned as a linchpin to his many-parted installations that combine elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, video, assemblage and street art.

Working between the two countries, Valenzuela’s expanded ceramic practice is sensitive to space. It considers ideas of occupation and annexation; examines themes of conflict, dominance and resistance – reflecting on his early experiences growing up in army base camps throughout the southern Philippines – and frequently combines the personal with the political.

Valenzuela was the recipient of the 2025 Porter Street Commission from Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, the 2022 SALA Publication (a monograph dedicated to his twenty-year practice), and the 2015 Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award. His works have featured in the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, the 15th Australian Ceramics Triennale, and the 3rd Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale.