Marlon Mullen

Marlon Mullen’s (b. 1963) kaleidoscopic paintings feature interlocking shapes of tactile paint that reference images found in art magazines from the library at NIAD Art Center. A strong formalist, Mullen paints precise shapes in bold swirls of vivid colors, creating topographical pools of paint and confident graphic lines that delineate forms that had formerly served to make an image. As he distills and reconstructs his references, the paintings come to withhold what one might consider vital information, prioritizing previously minor or overlooked details. 

With his uniquely rigorous manner of organizing the picture plane, Mullen upsets the expected hierarchy of elements in an image. Shadows move out from the background into the fore, stripes of a magazine barcode enlarge to become graphic scaffolding that provide movement and depth, while text is abstracted into imagery that performs an aesthetic or poetic function. On Mullen’s surfaces, the components are liberated from any purpose other than generating composition, gesture, and rhythm. Amidst these radical transmutations, the artist creates his own idiosyncratic universe that toggles gloriously between representation and abstraction. 

Mullen was born in Richmond, California. He has had solo exhibitions at JTT, NY, Atlanta Contemporary, GA and White Columns, NY. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including the 2019 SECA Art Award exhibition, SFMOMA; the Whitney Biennial 2019; Way Bay 2 and Create, BAM/PFA, Berkeley, CA; Under Another Name, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY. Mullen received the 2014 Wynn Newhouse Award. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art, both New York, NY; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; and the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR. Marlon Mullen is represented exclusively by Adams and Ollman in Oregon. He has worked at NIAD since 1986.