Public Opening // "Projects: Marlon Mullen"

There is no mistaking the work of Marlon Mullen. His distinctive paintings, with their lush surfaces and bold color, extend the long-standing tradition of making art about art.

For nearly 40 years, Mullen has been based at the NIAD Art Center, a progressive art studio for artists with developmental disabilities in his native Richmond, California. Donated issues of art publications, such as Art in America and Artforum, serve as his primary subject matter. Projects: Marlon Mullen presents a selection of the artist’s paintings from the past decade.

Upon selecting a glossy cover or an interior page as a point of departure, Mullen paints using acrylic on canvas, flat on a table. He maintains visual ties to his source material, while also radically transforming it. The resulting compositions reimagine the relationships among their parts. Barcodes and other details may zoom into prominence. Letters, numbers, punctuation, and the spacing between them may disappear or repeat. Imagery and graphics all become pure form to be reordered and reshaped. As this exhibition demonstrates, Mullen views magazines and art books not only as a prompt to create, but also as an invitation to engage with today’s art world on his own painterly terms.

Organized by Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, with Alexandra Morrison, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture. Emma Jaromin and Theresa Rodewald of the Department of Learning and Engagement and Cindy Chong, Jamaal Hooker, and Lana Hum of the Department of Exhibition Design and Production have collaborated closely in realizing this exhibition.

The Elaine Dannheisser Projects Series is made possible in part by the Elaine Dannheisser Foundation and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.