Alien Nativity

Mark Sheeky (b. 1972) is a multi-disciplinary artist and polymath from the North of England. His career began designing and developing computer games for the Amiga computer, then PC games, publishing over 50 titles by 2006.

In 2008 he became a full time artist, an oil painter in the surrealist/fantastical genre, and has one painting in the U.K. National Art Collection, and one artwork in the Nietzsche-Dokumentationszentrum, Naumberg. Art awards include The Grosvenor Museum’s 8th Open Art Award, The Barracks Trust Award, and The Jobling Gowler Art Award.

Though primarily a painter detailed oil works, his visual art oeuvre includes hundreds of watercolour and ink illustrations, digital work, paintings in acrylic, and a wide gamut of media. His painting can include sculpted frames, cabinets, or other elements of craft including plaster casting, gilding, work in clay, plastics or contemporary materials.

A meticulous record keeper; as of 2024 Sheeky has produced over 1,400 works of well documented visual art.

After early experiments in synthesizer music, Sheeky’s first music release was Arcangel in 2000, the CD soundtrack to his first Windows PC game. Second release Synaesthesia was released by REV Records in 2001. Since then, all of his music remains self-published and, perhaps uniquely, created using software of his own design. This software, Prometheus, which began development in 2001. Each algorithm, from the sample playback, to filters and reverb algorithms has been personally developed for this bespoke music workstation.

Early releases were electronic instrumental music influenced by computer game music. In 2009 he collaborated with vocalist Tor James Faulkner to produce two albums of synth-pop songs. A self-taught pianist, Sheeky began to perform in art venues from 2015, collaborating with visual artist Sabine Kussmaul and poet Tim Watson to produce the piano-based album The Anatomy of Emotions, and performing a few experimental piano sonatas in local venues. From circa 2020, Sheeky’s music became increasingly vocal orientated in the art-rock/art-pop genre.

As of 2024, Sheeky has published 70 music releases, 39 of which are original albums; 4 with Deborah Edgeley as part of contemporary lieder duo, ‘Fall in Green’.

From 2015 to 2018 Sheeky was producer and host of weekly arts radio programme ArtsLab, for community station RedShift Radio. The show’s groundbreaking format involved listeners creating new content for each episode. After leaving RedShift, the format was translated to YouTube for two years as ArtSwarm.

Published books include the novella The Many Beautiful Worlds of Death (2015), the art treatise 21st Century Surrealism (2018), and several illustrated works including a contemporary set of illustrations for William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.