Born in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, Mark Lancaster studied at Newcastle University (1961–65), where he was taught by Pop artist Richard Hamilton. Lancaster first visited New York in 1964, working as an assistant to Andy Warhol. On his return to Newcastle later that year, he began to work on a larger scale and focused on abstract painting. After graduating, he worked as a teaching assistant to Hamilton, and went on to teach painting at Bath Academy of Art in Corsham.
Visits to New York during the 1960s led him to settle there in 1972. He worked as a secretary to the artist Jasper Johns and took part in some of Warhol’s films. Later in the 1970s and early 1980s he was artistic advisor and designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In 1985, he briefly returned to Britain. He departed for the United States in the wake of Andy Warhol’s death in 1987, going on to produce a series of 200 paintings collectively titled ‘Post-Warhol Souvenirs’. He moved to Florida and became an American citizen in 1999.
