Sunday, January 30, 2011
James Marshall ["Dalek"] has lived and worked in a variety of vibrant subcultures, from punk rock, skateboarding, graffiti and Japanese anime to his current activity in painting, illustration and graphic design.
His early focus on figuration led to the development of the popular "Space Monkey" character, who served as the artist's ad hoc signature (and alter ego) as it navigated virtual worlds in/on snowboards, T-shirts, and prototype cars. Between 2007-2009, this hyperactive icon of human excess would undergo a three-year process of fragmentation as Marshall turned to kaleidoscopic worlds of day-glo color and abstract geometry.
Reflecting the artist's observation of accelerating cosmopolitan societies that sit perilously on the verge of "systems overload," these increasingly urgent paintings push the eye through labyrinthine realms of color, shape and line.
Between 1992-1995, Marshall earned a BA in Anthropology & Sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. He worked as a studio assistant for the well-known Japanese artist Takashi Murakami from 2001-2002, and has exhibited his work around the world in exhibitions, publications, journals and private collections.
He is currently represented by the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York, Irvine Contemporary in Washington, D.C., and Merry Karnowsky in Los Angeles. For NCNC, Marshall authored a newly commissioned wall painting featuring 70 colors, crystalline geometries and his signature maze of delirious danger. The video posted here presents the fabrication of that mural.
Special thanks to SECCA for posting this video.
