Marc Balakjian was born in 1940. His parents were survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. He grew up in Lebanon, in the small town of Rayak next to a French military airbase. At the age of 10  he moved to Beirut with his parents. In 1966 he came to England to study architecture. After working a year in Oxford as an architectral draftsman he decided to study art. From 1967 to 1970 he studied painting at Hammersmith College of Art in London and from 1971 to 1973  postgraduate   printmaking at the Slade School of Fine Art.
He has taught printmaking in many art schools in Great Britain, Europe and the USA. He  has had one man shows in London, Belgium, Norway and Canada and participated in numerous group shows including many International Print and Drawing Biennales and Triennales in Europe, Japan and the USA. He was awarded many international prizes in these exhibitions.
His work is included in a great number of public gallery and museum collections in Great Britain,  Europe and the USA. These include The British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, London; City Art Gallery, Edinburgh; Glynn Vivien Art Gallery, Swansea; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Albertina Museum, Vienna; Modern Art Museum, Dublin; Modern Art Museum Fredrikstad, Norway and the National Gallery of Art Washinton, USA.

He currently lives and works in London.

photograph by Dimitris Vasiliou