Marlon Mullen

March 3–April 14, 2012

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 36 × 42 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 in. (A vibrant abstract image of an obscure human-like figure wearing a jersey with the number 76.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 30 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 18 in. (A textured abstract layered painting of various shapes and colors overlapping one another.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 28 × 18 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 18 in. (A vibrant painting made up of various colors, creating abstract shapes.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 24 × 18 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso, acrylic and tempera on canvas, 20 x 24 in. (A painting of an odd purple shape with a black line and light blue dots, surrounding the image is a dark and light blue background.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso, acrylic and tempera on canvas, 20 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 32 x 24 in. (A painting of various small blob shaped objects against a dark blue background.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 32 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 in. (A vibrant painting of blue and red objects on the opposite corner of the canvas with circles inside each. Between both shapes are various blue curves on the yellow background.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 30 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 in. (A colorful painting filled with obscured objects and shapes.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 18 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 31 x 24 in. (An abstract image of various shapes and paint dripping throughout the canvas.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 31 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, tempera on canvas, 24 x 18 in. (Vibrant display of 6 multi-colored abstract objects against a green and yellow background.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, tempera on canvas, 24 × 18 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 24 in. (A painting of a human-like figure with two yellow at the bottom, whose body becomes apart of the white background.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on wood panel, 16 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 36 x 42 in. (An intricate abstract painting with a variety of shapes and objects floating on an aqua blue foreground.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 36 × 42 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 40 x 25 in. (Various objects, dots and lines are painted on a green background.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, acrylic on wood panel, 40 × 25 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, tempera and acrylic on wood panel, 34 x 45 in. (A colorful abstract painting depicting creature-like figures, seemingly interacting with one another.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, tempera and acrylic on wood panel, 34 × 45 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in. (A half brown, half black abstract painting with various shapes on either side.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 40 × 30 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 22 x 28 in. (A painting of a red circle in the center of a blue background and green foreground.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 22 × 28 in.

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 in. (A colorful painting with two similar sides reflecting multiple different colors, shapes, and lines.)

Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2007, gesso and acrylic on canvas, 30 × 24 in.

Marlon Mullen, installation view, 2012.

Press Release

White Columns is proud to present the first New York solo exhibition by the Bay Area-based artist Marlon Mullen.

Marlon Mullen works at the celebrated National Institute of Art & Disabilities Art Center (NIAD) in Richmond, California. NIAD is one of three visionary Bay Area organizations, along with Creative Growth (Oakland) and Creativity Explored (San Francisco) that were originally founded by Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz in the early 1970s. The centers provide services, support and studio facilities to communities of adult artists with mental, developmental and physical disabilities.

Over the past seven years White Columns has collaborated extensively with artists associated with Creative Growth, presenting their work in solo exhibitions and group shows in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, and elsewhere. This is our first collaboration with NIAD.

Mullen’s paintings are based on found photographic images, which the artist uses a departure point for his subsequent work. In the process of developing a painting Mullen’s photographic sources typically become obscured, or literally abstracted, where an image is subsequently reduced to a graphic schema of interlocking colors and forms. Operating at the threshold between legibility and illegibility Mullen’s works appear to operate with the multiple and overlapping histories of twentieth century modernism, whilst steadfastly remaining highly idiosyncratic.

For his White Columns exhibition Mullen will present a discrete group of recent acrylic paintings on both canvas and board.

Mullen’s work was recently included in the ICI travelling exhibition “Create”, co-curated by Larry Rinder and Matthew Higgs, that opened at the Berkeley Art Museum in 2011. His work was also included in the widely celebrated 2011 exhibition “After Shelley Duval ’72 (Frogs On The High Line)” curated by Bjarne Melgaard for Maccarone, New York.

For more information contact: info@whitecolumns.org