Mark Lawrence Stafford was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1978. He received a BFA from the School of Art, University of Arizona in 2002; an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2005, and became an AIM Fellow of the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2007.

His cross-disciplinary art practice explores work ethics, civic oppression, productivity, and commercialization with a focus on the underlying model of role-assignment and stratification dominating in our society. It questions the behaviors our culture is assimilating, as our country's power structure is swinging from a capitalist government to a privatized commercialist society controlled by imperialists.

Mr. Stafford has represented the United States in international performances and exhibitions at venues such as Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China; the 7th Verkliets Biennal in Germany; VIVID, Birmingham, United Kingdom; Zentral Bibliothek, Zurich, Switzerland; Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo, Merida, Venezuela; Biblioteca Nacional de Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the 10th OpenArt International Performance Art Festival, Beijing, China.

Recent grants, residencies, and awards include Socrates Sculpture Park Production Grant 2010, The Puffin Foundation Grant 2010, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Art and Law Residency 2010, and chashama Visual Arts studio residency 2010.

Upcoming solo exhibitions include:Demolishing an Icon, encompassing video, sculpture, live performance and choreography at Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, New York opening October 1st, 2011; and Self-endentured Servitude, an exhibition of object and context specific performance art documentation at Alice Chilton Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, opening on November 15th 2011.