Details:
① Artwork:
Hole in the Sky
This painting depicts a scene in a small stretch of city land that has been illuminated by a waxing gibbous moon. The moon and the tree act as two characters in communication—a celestial body illuminating a piece of nature. The hum of the city serves as a backdrop to the scene, with distant city lights adding a layer of artificial luminosity to the night sky and casting a dramatic spotlight on the tree and the foreground. Darker tones in the middle ground create familiar shapes that come in and out of recognition, grounding the key figures in an uncanny night setting. The artist's scenes are based on lived experiences—frequently in Detroit and Hamtramck, where the artist works and lives—of seeing something beautiful during night walks, moments of elation experienced alone.
Marceline Mason's paintings are meditations on the urban landscape at night that reverse the role of the figure and the natural world. The artist depicts trees and foliage as figures set against a human world of light pollution and concrete. Mason's application of color creates limited, tonal depictions of nature cast in man-made light. The resulting compositions depict a fleeting symbiosis, where plant life and natural atmosphere exist alongside traces of human ephemera.
Specs:
③ Artist:
Marceline Mason’s paintings are meditations on the urban landscape at night drawn from the artist’s lived experience in Detroit. The artist uses limited and tonal colors to depict nature in man-made light, creating a fleeting symbiosis of plant life and human ephemera. Reversing the traditional trope of a subject shown in the natural world, Mason’s work depicts trees and foliage as figures set against a human world of light pollution and concrete.
BIO:
Marceline Mason received a BFA from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia in 2015 and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2017.
A solo exhibition of Mason’s work, Alla Prima Notte, took place at Belle Isle Viewing Room in Detroit, Michigan in 2021.
Group exhibitions that have shown Mason’s work include: BasBlue Opening Reception at BasBlue in Detroit, Michigan (2021); The Works at 333 Midland Annex Gallery in Highland Park, Michigan (2019); Our Town at Community House in Birmingham, Michigan (2019); You Can't Touch a Ghost at Galleri 2987 in Detroit, Michigan (2018); Paperworks at Scarab Club in Detroit, Michigan (2018); Making Spaces Home at Black Box Gallery in Dearborn, Michigan (2018); Hatchback 12 at Hatch Gallery in Hamtramck, Michigan (2018); and Drive Thru Painting Salon at Forum Gallery in Michigan (2017).
Mason lives and works in Hamtramck, Michigan.
