Mark Drew

Mark Drew is a Tokyo-based artist whose work explores the intersection of nostalgia, music culture, and visual storytelling. Best known for his mash-ups of early ‘90s hip-hop lyrics with panels from vintage Peanuts comic strips, Drew’s work draws a direct line between the techniques of visual art and the sonic language of hip-hop.

Much like the producers who shaped iconic tracks by layering borrowed beats, loops, and vocal snippets into entirely new compositions, Drew “samples” visual culture. By recontextualizing familiar imagery and text, he creates original works that carry echoes of a collective memory. His approach pays homage to the creativity inherent in remix culture, where the act of combining and reframing can be just as expressive as an invention from scratch.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, Drew co-founded China Heights Gallery in 2004 before relocating to Tokyo, where he continues to build a body of work that fuses music, comics, and design. His compositions are clean and deliberate, resembling newspaper comic panels and album covers that invite viewers to both read and listen with their eyes.

Drew’s work resonates because it feels both deeply personal and universally familiar. The comic frames he uses are unaltered, but when paired with lyrics from artists like Nas or Wu-Tang Clan, they take on new meaning. Each piece becomes a layered remix of cultural moments, filtered through the artist’s perspective and arranged with the same rhythm and cadence that drives the beats behind the bars.

Through this process, Drew extends the lineage of sampling into the visual realm, reinforcing how art, like music, is often born from what came before. His exhibitions feel like mixtapes you can walk through, where every pairing tells a story and every lyric lands like a line of dialogue.

Mark Drew’s work has been shown internationally at Harman Projects in New York City, Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles, and StolenSpace Gallery in London.