Untitled (Green, Brown, Tan, and Gray), 2021
acrylic on canvas
35 ½ x 61 ¾
Marvin Brown
Self Portrait, 2021
acrylic on canvas
50 ¼ x 38
Untitled, 2021
acrylic on canvas
23 ¼ x 27
Untitled (Stripes), 2021
acrylic on canvas
30 ¾ x 42 ½
Artist Statement
My work comes from a set thinking process about strategy and continuous problem solving. Within this process I think about complete opposites, and or paradoxical ideas. Visually I lean into this sense of awkwardness in the relationships of visual elements and put things together in a way that creates visual harmony. I’m able to create contrast through solid foreground shapes that sit on textured, abstracted backgrounds. Tension is created through woven shapes, contrasting colors, and the combination of rough and smooth textures. My work guides the viewer through my thought process, inviting them to do the same sort of questioning and problem solving that I do while working.
Through abstraction I’ve created a distinct style of mark making that I work with in my paintings. I continue to push this visual language that I have developed in each piece. Working mostly from intuition, I react to each mark that I make, carefully organizing each shape on the canvas, balancing the composition as I go. There is no set plan when I go into a new painting, but a visual formula that I use to guide me. My goal is to push each painting one step further than the last. Through time, a viewer should be able to see a continuous progression in the complexities of my work. There will be similarities in each individual piece, but no two should be exactly alike.
About Marvin
Marvin Brown is an abstract painter currently based in Ithaca, New York. At Ithaca College he is studying Art, with a minor in Graphic Design. His non-representational work guides viewers through his thought process, inviting them to do the same sort of questioning and problem solving that he does while working. Always having an idea or vision of what a painting will be in the end, to reach the final vision he builds it by pulling from his catalog of mark-making, creating a unique interaction between shape, color and contrasting textures. Through this process he questions what makes each mark important and how these shapes or marks will work together in the end. His goal as the artist is to find the correct logic order that these abstract elements need to be arranged so that they will make sense in the final completed composition.