Marcus Blackwell | Mixed Media at Mansfield Art Center

August 28 – October 16 | Marcus Blackwell | Mixed Media | Spotlight Gallery

“When I look at people a lot of times I see them as a statement of symbols. How do we distil thoughts and ideas into a simple little image? What does that image say to us? My interest in people is in seeing them as a canvas of [these] symbols.”

Marcus focuses primarily on faces in his work, to him they tell the whole story. Many of the images he creates are what’s known as Afro-Abstractism; it’s an expression of the African-American experience in symbolic terms. To him, it more aptly illustrates the cultural experience than any photo-realistic image. “Just the idea that being black in America is sometimes, well, it’s an existential venture. No, not a venture, it’s an existential horror story.” He laughs. “When I look at people a lot of times I see them as a statement of symbols. How do we distil thoughts and ideas into a simple little image? What does that image say to us? My interest in people is in seeing them as a canvas of [these] symbols.”

Explaining the black experience to anyone in America can be a frustrating thing. A lot of that is a lack of empathy, but a lot of it too has to come from the philosophical dilemma of subjectivity. It’s completely impossible to understand someone else’s experience if you’ve never felt it, not by any literal sense. Symbols attempt to correct that. Instead of fumbling for words, you’re communicating on a more primal level. Past the ego, straight into that little part of ourselves deep in us that we all ignore. Down into the truths of us. More permanent and more resonant.

“What does it mean to be black? I seek to ask that of my viewers, but I also seek to ask that of myself. The questions are more important than finding the answers.”