Details:

The artist uses a predominately dark palette in this painting to question established definitions, representations and interpretations of Blackness—from its most literal qualities as a color, or absence of color, to its most metaphysical.
Unframed

① Artwork:

Event 11

In this painting, the artist uses a predominately dark palette of blacks, browns and blues to question established definitions, representations and interpretations of Blackness—from its most literal qualities as a color, or absence of color, to its most metaphysical. This work is part of a series where Marsalis employs images of microphones, silhouettes and spotlights to define areas of light or dark. In his practice, the artist recognizes similarities in the interdependent relationships between an artist and a painting, creating an analogy between a performer and a stage.

Specs:

8 inches
10 inches

③ Artist:

Jasper Marsalis

Jasper Marsalis’ paintings, sculptures, music and texts examine the role of the artist as a performer. The similarities between the canvas and the stage are explored in compositions that suggest both flatness and depth. Los Angeles-based Marsalis uses history, representation and identities—including Blackness—to create a spectacular and fractured illusion, while simultaneously questioning its effect.

BIO:

Jasper Marsalis, born in 1995, is an artist and musician based in Los Angeles, California.

Exhibitions of his work include: Stadium, a site-specific anti-monument, at Malcolm Yards in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2020); ♫ A star like any other — at Kristina Kite Gallery in Los Angeles, California (2020); ♪ A star like any other — at Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2019); and Flash blindness at Svetlana in New York City (2018). 

Marsalis’ work was also featured in Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art at Lehman College Art Gallery in the Bronx, New York (2020).

Crater Speak, an artist’s book produced in collaboration with Midway Contemporary, was released in 2019. 

Under the moniker Slauson Malone, Marsalis released the albums Vergangenheitsbewältigung (Crater Speak) in 2020 and A Quiet Farwell 2016-2018 (Crater Speak) in 2019.

Jasper Marsalis:
Event 11, 2021
Oil on canvas
10.0 × 8.0 inches /