Melissa Marks

Melissa Marks describes “the drawn mark” as a “mutable abstraction, linear catalyst and fantasy instigator. Every drawing I make is a spastic diagram of a core-shaking internal disruption, an interior landscape made visible, a picture of a self in a constant state of remaking.”

In a twenty-year project that has included drawing, painting, animation, wall-drawing and installation, Marks exploits the flexible structure of "serial context in collusion with the act of drawing" in order to explore ideas about character, performance, Pop, Nature, and Abstraction. The calligraphic gesture and deliberate line exercise an energetic form of visual self-talk, referencing sources as diverse as American comics, Contemporary Japanese Anime, High-Renaissance Fresco cycles, Van Gogh, Monet, Matthew Barney, Sol LeWitt, Edo-period woodcuts and Chinese scroll painting. Veering between the graphic extremes of full color and monochrome, subjects include battle, paradise, water, transience and satisfaction.

Marks’ solo exhibitions include Bloomberg Space, London, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, NY, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT and Joya: arte + ecología, Cortijada Los Gazquez, Spain. Her work has been included in exhibitions at PS1/Moma, NY, Artspace, CT and The Drawing Center, NY. 

Courtesy of the Artist