“Paintings on Walls” Artwork by Chris Marin

Aug 22- Sept 21, 2022, Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery - Broward College Ft. Lauderdale FL

Lift Me Up - Curatorial Statement

The swiftness in these mural paintings allows us to feel a rush of history and a mirroring of our present time. We find ourselves amid urgency, joy, and loss when looking at Chris Marin’s five-part painting, Lift Me Up. These works are an investigation of experience through overlayed fragmented scenes. Marin’s use of nonlinear narrative gives room for the viewer to “enter in” at any place with an opportunity for connection.

Lift Me Up is an acknowledgment of our somebodiness, the somebody noted in MLK’s speech, given six months before his assassination. In this speech, “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” he calls and encourages students to stand strong with dignity, to hold out and burn that midnight oil. A challenge to continue fighting for your dreams with vigor, or as my Latino neighbors would say, “Con gana!” We are working through the weight of our personal history, the type that can stunt any growth. Yet in the midnight hours of our toil and sweat when we question our pursuit, MLK states, “…be ready to face those doors as they open.” It is in the dark of the night when we need to get the work done.

 Marin’s work is an open door to society’s critical moments, the kind that can impede us or propel us forward as people. These scenes from the civil rights movement, the second wave of immigration, and pop culture are jam-packed with prominent figures yet the artist uses the color red to get away from race and to focus on the emotion. With the deep red values, he references the underpaintings found in classical artworks, the monochrome allows for a smooth wash into the next scene, as our eyes easily glide from one point to another. The artist inadvertently states his fears through the layering of scenes, yet the final view is a rose growing from concrete, referencing the poem of Tupac Shakur, “…funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it's learned to breathe fresh air.”

Chris Marin is expanding the definition of painting, exploring identity through markers of skin, clothing, and lyrics. Growing up in West Texas and later living in San Francisco, he masterfully shows the duality of experiences: culturally, politically, and personally. The artist is ever-evolving, with his ability to demonstrate skill and personal narrative all in one.

Built by Pictures x Stay Home Gallery

Online Exhibit, September 2021

Family photos tell a story of a person, place, or feeling. They are not only markers of the past, but actively influence how we carry them into the future. Though the original source may be lost to time, new artworks are reimagined through remembering. The emotional value in these artworks is externalized through the transformation of material.

These artists have chosen aspects of their identity and presented them in a way that either distorts the past, making it hard to see details or presenting them in a way that tells of a bigger theme. These portraits have now become meditations on nostalgia. By memorializing them it adds weight to the nuances of life.

Accompanying the artworks are voice recordings from the artists, detailing their process and relation to memory.

Please visit Stay Home Gallery to view artworks and read artist statements: https://www.stayhomegallery.com/exhibitions/built-by-pictures

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Third Floor Window

Pittsburgh, PA January 2021 - Present

Third Floor Window exists as a nontraditional art space that presents contemporary video art in an accessible format. By looking up, a curious neighbor, dog walker, and restaurant-goer can all be enchanted by a glowing window. One quick view can instill joy and healthy questioning as the artwork presents different visual scenarios -- ranging from a cake-obsessed werewolf to a compilation of flowers in bloom. Curating one artist a weekend, on loop, every Friday and Saturday evening. Third Floor Window exists to bring art to a neighborhood, to be experienced by anyone.

Exhibited Artists: Taylor Yocom, Alexis McGrigg, George Jenne, Ivette Spradlin, Patrick Schmidt, Michael Emerson, Ivette Spradlin, Devin Ratheal, Linda Price-Sneddon, Justin Lincoln, Lauren Elena Lopez, and the list goes on!

@thirdfloorwindow and thirdfloorwindowgallery@gmail.com

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Spilling The Tea

charles adams studio project, Lubbock, TX - October 4th - November 1st 2019

Artists: Carly Mchmahon (Lubbock, TX), Laura Gillmore (San Francisco, CA), Moises Salazar (Chicago, IL), William Paul Thomas (Durham, NC), Taylor Yocom (St. Louis, MO), Rachel Deane (Los Angeles, CA), Michelle Bonilla Garcia (San Francisco, CA)

Slurp! How can something so smooth, be so bitter? What is tea with no sugar?

Spilling the Tea leaves this aftertaste in your mouth. The selected work creates dissonance by depicting sorrow and exhaustion in vibrant color. Form is treated with hyperbole, while portraying the body and the idea of empathy as it is represented in the everyday. As the phrase “spilling the T” relates directly to telling the truth, the works lead us to believe harsh honesty is valued so much so, we delight in its perturbed directness. In its glittery, colorful, and loud candor, the use of material raises the level of honesty. These artists were prone to relate or create with what is familiar, found or sticky. Spilling the Tea is comprised of artists hailing from all over the U.S. Their intent, to expose themselves through their medium, to unabashedly share their story, their truth.

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Electric Motel

charles adams studio project, Lubbock, TX - April 4th, 2019

Artists: Deepika Dhiman (India), Carolina Alamilla (Miami,FL), Lauren Lopez (Dallas, TX), Jessie Doddington (Portales, NM)

In this time we live in, we explore the internet as if it were different rooms in a hotel. Hoping to find the room that suits our needs, that fulfills our desires and matches our unique tastes. This exhibition uses technology/ video art as the crux to each work to actualize the experience. In turn creating this altered reality.

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The Marfa Intensive: NAP Collective

November 2, 2018 Satellite Gallery Lubbock, TX

Marfa TX-> Lubbock, TX

This dynamic exhibition presents the art process and visual work that comes from this investigation of how one allows and resists healing through life's traumatic experiences. This artist collective used the landscape and history of Marfa, Texas, as their foundation to then produce and create a body of work engaging all the senses. The collective is made up of Carly Mcmahon, Sam Taylor, Carolina Alamilla, Devin Ratheal, and Raha Shojaei. Each with different backgrounds and creative practices, they were united during their time together in Marfa, as they learned about each other's strengths in collaboration.

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