Marlon Mullen
February 6–March 21, 2020

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce the gallery’s third exhibition with artist Marlon Mullen. The show will feature bold, vibrant paintings made by Mullen over the last five years, many featuring the artist’s characteristic references to art magazines and periodicals such as Artforum and Art in America, among others. The exhibition will open with a reception for the artist on Thursday, February 6 and remain on view through March 21.

On view will be a selection of the artist's kaleidoscopic paintings, each with interlocking shapes of tactile paint that reference images found in magazines and books from the library at Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development (NIAD), a progressive art studio in Richmond, California that supports the endeavors of artists with disabilities and where Mullen has worked since the mid-1980s. While Mullen’s paintings are based on existing imagery appropriated from another artist’s work, the graphic design of an advertisement, or the cover of a magazine, Mullen transforms his source beyond recognition and only as a framework on which to organize his lavish passages of paint.

A strong formalist, Mullen paints precise shapes in bold swirls of vivid colors. As he distills and reconstructs his references, the paintings come to withhold what one might consider vital information, prioritizing previously minor or overlooked details. His topographical pools of paint and confident graphic lines delineate forms that had formerly served to make an image. On Mullen’s surfaces, the components are liberated from any purpose other than generating composition, gesture, and rhythm. In a similar fashion, text is rendered not necessarily to be read, but rather as imagery that performs an aesthetic or poetic function.

With his uniquely rigorous manner of organizing the picture plane, Mullen upsets the expected hierarchy of elements in an image. Shadows become prominent, the stripes of a magazine barcode take on an oversized presence, and key elements of the picture are emptied of details. Amidst these radical transmutations, the artist creates his own idiosyncratic universe that toggles gloriously between representation and abstraction.

Born in 1963 in Richmond, California, Mullen has had solo exhibitions at Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA (2015) and White Columns, New York, NY (2012). His work has been included in group exhibitions such as the 2019 SECA Art Award exhibition, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA (2019); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019); Way Bay 2, U.C. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Berkeley, CA (2018); Affinity, Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, CA (2017); Under Another Name, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (2014–15); and Create, BAMPFA (2011). Mullen received the 2014 Wynn Newhouse Award. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; BAMPFA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; and Portland Art Museum, Oregon. He has worked at NIAD (Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development) Art Center, Richmond, since 1985, and lives in Rodeo, California.

installation view: Marlon Mullen 


installation view: Marlon Mullen


installation view: Marlon Mullen


installation view: Marlon Mullen 


installation view: Marlon Mullen


installation view: Marlon Mullen


installation view: Marlon Mullen


installation view: Marlon Mullen


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2019
acrylic on canvas
28h x 22w in / 71.12h x 55.88w cm
Mm-2019-387-P1901


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2019
acrylic on canvas
36h x 42w in / 91.44h x 106.68w cm
Mm-2019-383-P1200


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2015
acrylic on canvas
40h x 30w in / 101.60h x 76.20w cm
Mm-2015-240-P0100


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2017
acrylic on linen
36h x 26w in / 91.44h x 66.04w cm
Mm-2017-364-P0807


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2015
acrylic on canvas
36h x 36w in / 91.44h x 91.44w cm
Mm-2015-247-P0161


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2016
acrylic on canvas
36h x 36w in / 91.44h x 91.44w cm
Mm-2016-279-P0184


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2013
acrylic on canvas
41h x 48w in / 104.14h x 121.92w cm
Mm-2013-381-P0900


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2017
acrylic on canvas
36h x 36w in / 91.44h x 91.44w cm
Mm-2017-351-P1706


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2015
acrylic on canvas
30h x 40w in / 76.20h x 101.60w cm
Mm-2015-382-P2406


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2015
acrylic on canvas
30h x 36w in / 76.20h x 91.44w cm
Mm-2015-258-P2409


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2019
acrylic on canvas
30h x 30w in / 76.20h x 76.20w cm
Mm-2019-370-P0943


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2017
acrylic on linen
24h x 20w in / 60.96h x 50.80w cm
Mm-2017-318-P5127


Marlon Mullen
Untitled, 2017
acrylic on canvas
30h x 30w in / 76.20h x 76.20w cm
Mm-2017-113-P5181