Photo by Marcus Maddox
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Biography Isis Davis-Marks (b.1997) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and writer based in New York City. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues including the Brooklyn Museum, the Yale School of Art, the SPRING/BREAK art show, the Prizm Art fair, and La Loma Projects. Her visual work has also been featured in the Nation. She is currently a member of UNDERDONK, an artist collective based in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In her writing practice, Isis focuses on covering contemporary art, and most of her written work draws from philosophical and art historical texts to discuss issues including representation and contemporary visual culture. Her articles have been referenced in the New York Times and published in Smithsonian magazine, Cultured magazine, Phillips Auctions, Artsy, Frieze, the Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, Communication Arts, King Kong Garçon, the Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. She is also on the board of the Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art. Artist Statement I use both written pieces and images to tell stories, explore the nature of time, and investigate the limitations of language. In this practice, I examine topics connected to race, femininity, education, and class, but I also attempt to relate these themes to more universal quandaries like love and ancestry, which is why plants and artifacts often appear in my work. In doing so, I put my multidisciplinary oeuvre in conversation with ecology, literature, philosophy, and art history. Interdisciplinary scholarship is important to my practice, and I usually take a scientific approach to creating by referencing impressionist and pointillist painters, like Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat. I use this research to employ color theory and optical color mixing to create the illusion of shade and light with embroidery thread, fabric, and paint. I often work with fiber, which appeals to me because textiles have a rich history in various cultures around the world. I’ve also worked with fabric since childhood, when my great aunt taught me how to dye cloth, crochet, knit, and sew. People often associate cloth with domesticity and femininity, which are often disregarded or undervalued in fine art and academic spaces. I want to disrupt this narrative by using techniques from beyond Europe and pushing the boundaries of what a painting can be. In doing so, I use various media to craft intricate narratives about personal histories that connect to a broader political context. CV Born: Harlem, NY. 1997 Lives and works in New York, NY Education Yale University, B.A. in Philosophy and Visual Art, 2019 Bronx High School of Science, 2015 Solo Exhibitions 2023 “The Critique of Pure Reason” All Street (New York, NY) "There is Another Sky" Bob's Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) Selected Group Exhibitions 2025 "Bolsterarts Benefit Art Auction" Pen + Brush (New York, NY) 2o24 "Propagation: Suspended Roots" Studio 9D (New York, NY) "The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition" The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY) "Home is you, Right Now" Ruby/ Dakota (New York, NY) "On the way Home" Baker—Hall Art (Miami, FL) “And Sew it Seams” Toshkova Fine Art Advisory (Charlotte, NC) “Black Girl Fight Club: Chrysalis” CANADA Gallery (New York, NY) "Interwoven" Bob's Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) 2023 Filo Sofi Arts Presentation at Prizm Art Fair (Miami, FL) "Dreamscape" 35 Meadow Street (Brooklyn, NY) "The Discrete Charm of Abundance" Filo Sofi Art Presentation at SPRING/BREAK Art Show (New York, NY) "No Regerts" St. Charles Projects (Brooklyn, NY) "Pure Taste" Curated by Xav Langton and Camille Jamet (Los Angeles, CA) "Turkey-Syria Earthquake Relief Benefit + Fine Art Auction" NYC Culture Club (New York, NY) "Pedagogy as Self" HOUSING (New York, NY) "Familiar-Faces" Black Brick Project (Brooklyn, NY) "Who Are You?" Oxford House Projects (Los Angeles, CA) “Hajimemashite!” America Bashi Gallery (Tokyo, Japan) "It's Never Over," St. Charles Projects (Baltimore, MD) 2022 "Layered," Mad Eye Gallery (New York, NY) "Welcome Back," NYC Culture Club (New York, NY) "Black Cherry: The Group Show," 35 Meadow Street (Brooklyn, NY) "Pet Cemetery," Bob's Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) "Perspective," Mad Eye Gallery (New York, NY) “PENTA: A Five-Artist Exhibition,” Brookdale Community College (Brookdale, NJ) 2021 "Textures, Patterns, Shapes or Forms," Las Laguna Art Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) "The Morning After," Curated by Christina Nicola (Brooklyn, NY) "Hot Tropics," La Loma Projects Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) "Wrist Game," Curated by Jewel Ham (Online) 2020 "So Far," La Loma Projects Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) 2019 "Intermediate Painting Final Exhibition," EIK Gallery (New Haven, CT) "Senior Thesis Show," Yale School of Art (New Haven, CT) "Black Femme Mystique," Nick Chapel Theater at Yale College (New Haven, CT) 2018 "Senior Thesis Works in Progress," Yale School of Art (New Haven, CT) "SAP: Cynicism and Sincerity in Sync" (New Haven, CT) 2016 "Figure Drawing Final Exhibition," EIK Gallery (New Haven, CT) Awards 2018 Wendy E. Blanning Memorial Summer Fellowship for Journalism (New Haven,CT) Creative and Preforming Arts Awards in the Residential Colleges at Yale University (New Haven, CT) Jonathan Edwards Richter Fellowship (New Haven, CT) 2017 Edward Bouchet Fellowship (New Haven, CT) 2015 Yale Club Scholar (New York, NY) Residencies 2024 SVA Artist Residency, New York, NY, July 2024 2023 ChaNorth, Run by ChaShaMa, Pine Planes, NY, June 2023 Curation 2024 “Someplace”: A three-person exhibition featuring works by Yasmine Anlan Huang, Peishan Huang and Xi Li, Latitude Gallery (New York, NY) 2022 “Emergence: Identity & Environment Through Emerging Artists of Color,” Davines Headquarters (Brooklyn, NY) 2021 Sapphic Summer, Brian Leo Projects (New York, NY) Subject Matters: Black Feminist Visions, Artsy (Online) Conference Presentations / Talks 2024 Leisure Corrupted: Black Surrealism in the Field, Peninsula Gallery Vision, Voice, and Representation: A panel discussion on feminism in the arts with Eleanor Heartney and Jill Connor, Ceres Gallery 2023 Talk with Textile artist Malaika Temba on her exhibition "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues," Soho Beach House Miami 2022 Conversation: Black Women Art Writers & Culture Journalists - Our Impact and Care, New Art Dealers Alliance 2021 Building a Career as an Arts Writer, Art Prof 2019 Yale Writing & Research Symposium Yale University, “Response to Sexual Solipsism: Pornography and its Discontents” Spring 2019 2018 Transforming Historically White Institutions through Scholarship Smith College “Response to Sexual Solipsism: Pornography and its Discontents” Fall 2018 Compass Philosophy Workshop Princeton University “Skepticism about Practical Reason: An Explanation of Christine Korsgaard’s Paper” Fall 2018 Press + Selected Arts Publications 2024 Lucid Dreamscape: A Black Cherry Exhibit, ONLYCHILD Magazine 2023 Meet Isis Davis-Marks | Artist & Writer, Shoutout LA 2022 In the Studio with Isis Davis-Marks, Auc Art 2021 The Arts Oasis Interview with Artist and Writer Isis Davis-Marks, the Arts Oasis What to Cook Right Now, the New York Times Ain't I a Woman, Up the Staircase Quarterly Black Families Matter, the Nation Black Women Matter, the Nation George Floyd, the Nation An Interview With Isis Davis-Marks, Now What?—Art History Podcast We Love the Old Internet ft. Isis Davis-Marks, We Love That! Podcast, Episode 37 |