October 2019
INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
Michael Marks
INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
Michael Marks
Artist Statement
My work reflects my role as a consumer and producer of images in the twenty-first century. I use a wide variety of materials including: painting, drawing, and virtual reality software to create immersive visual experiences. These works blend imagery and techniques from both high and low art sources, often assimilating the visual languages of classical painting, animation, illustration, and installation into a single work.
The works are a sort of befuddled history painting, with deconstructed and distorted realities that traverse themes of science fiction, changes in the natural world, symbols of permanence, puzzles, and my role as an artist in society. They are captive moments that both reveal and obscure meaning while reveling in their own illusion. Within this assortment of images and environments, I invite viewers to contemplate and explore the collection of narratives present in these visual possibilities.
My work reflects my role as a consumer and producer of images in the twenty-first century. I use a wide variety of materials including: painting, drawing, and virtual reality software to create immersive visual experiences. These works blend imagery and techniques from both high and low art sources, often assimilating the visual languages of classical painting, animation, illustration, and installation into a single work.
The works are a sort of befuddled history painting, with deconstructed and distorted realities that traverse themes of science fiction, changes in the natural world, symbols of permanence, puzzles, and my role as an artist in society. They are captive moments that both reveal and obscure meaning while reveling in their own illusion. Within this assortment of images and environments, I invite viewers to contemplate and explore the collection of narratives present in these visual possibilities.
Michael Marks was born on March, 5th, 1978 in Birmingham, Alabama, and spent his formative years growing up in rural Georgia. In eighth grade, he acquired his first set of oil paints from his grandmother, a MAD magazine from an older cousin, and took a computer coding class at an afterschool program. He has lived most of his artistic life between these experiences. Later, he received his BA from Georgia College and State University and MFA from Clemson University.
Marks was a co-founder and director of the ThreeCitiesGroup artist collective, active for nearly a decade across the Southeast. Working across a range of materials and techniques, his creative work has been shown nationally and internationally in over seventy-five exhibitions in twenty states; in US cities including New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Saint Louis, Austin, and Chicago, and internationally in Copenhagen, Prague, and Perth. His writings on contemporary art and education have been published by Temporary Art Review and the Paris College of Art Press. He serves on the board of FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory and Education) as editor of FATE In Review, an academic journal focused on arts education and visual culture. Marks is an Associate Professor of Art and Chair of The Department of Art + Design at the South Carolina School of the Arts at Anderson University.
Marks was a co-founder and director of the ThreeCitiesGroup artist collective, active for nearly a decade across the Southeast. Working across a range of materials and techniques, his creative work has been shown nationally and internationally in over seventy-five exhibitions in twenty states; in US cities including New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Saint Louis, Austin, and Chicago, and internationally in Copenhagen, Prague, and Perth. His writings on contemporary art and education have been published by Temporary Art Review and the Paris College of Art Press. He serves on the board of FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory and Education) as editor of FATE In Review, an academic journal focused on arts education and visual culture. Marks is an Associate Professor of Art and Chair of The Department of Art + Design at the South Carolina School of the Arts at Anderson University.
For inquiries contact the artists directly:
Michael Marks
michaelraymarks@gmail.com
www.michaelraymarks.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michaelraymarks/?hl=en
Michael Marks
michaelraymarks@gmail.com
www.michaelraymarks.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michaelraymarks/?hl=en