Mary Harker is a Glasgow-based artist who studied  painting and printmaking on the M.Litt. Fine Art practice at The Glasgow School of Art.  Her work spans drawing, painting and various experimental mediums.

Her creative practice explores the absence of human presence through objects and spaces. Light and shadow play a pivotal role, offering blurred and fragmented representations of the transient nature of life.

Central to her practice is the  study of the material culture of everyday objects and their agency and an exploration of human presence through the objects they possess, weaving narratives around absent individuals. Objects and places often carry our memories and so become a form of biography and/or autobiography. The power of the objects can be bestowed through their setting and their removal from that setting can lead to a falling away of their meaning. Dilapidated buildings, empty corridors and liminal space also hint at a ghostly presence of the past and a sense of the transience of life.

Experimentation is key to her methodology.  She embraces the element of chance in the artistic process and avoids preconceived ideas of the final product. Instead, she reflects deeply on her work and allows space for adaptation and re-working of ideas to develop the final piece.

She believes that a visual art practice allows self-exploration to understand who you are and your response to the world around you.