Mark Messersmith’s work appropriates two radically different traditions, creating an idiosyncratic and imaginative visual lexicon uniquely its own. In his inventive symbolist paintings. His works' electric colors and complex graphic images are narrative and emotionally propulsive. Now retired from teaching, Messersmith was professor of painting at Florida State University. He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including among others, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painting award, the Ford Foundation Artist Fellowships, and a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Artists Award. His work is in many museum, corporate, and private collections here and abroad.