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Biography
Isis Davis-Marks (b.1997) is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in New York City. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Yale School of Art and La Loma Projects gallery, and she regularly contributes illustrations to the Rumpus. Her writing has been published in Artsy, smithsonianmag.com, Elephant magazine, Widewalls, King Kong Garçon, the Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. She has been making art for as long as she can remember. Through the use of painting, drawing, text, and fabric, Isis explores different materials in order to tell stories about identity, everyday moments, femininity, race and class. Artist Statement I'm interested in exploring sensory details in my visual art practice: How do objects feel? How do colors work together? How can I evoke a specific experience—like listening to the sound of rain or walking down a busy New York street—with a piece of art? As an artist, I think about how to translate emotions into an image, and I believe that this desire to represent quotidian moments makes me want to create visual media. Through the use of embroidery thread, fabric, ink, and paint I want to explore topics connected to race, femininity and class in my work. I often reference impressionist and pointillist painters—like Vincent van Gogh and Georges Seurat—in my pieces, as I usually employ color theory and optical color mixing to create the illusion of shade and light with embroidery thread. I also nod to female textile artists—like Faith Ringgold, Sophia Narrett, Suchitra Mattai and Bisa Butler—for their skillful use of craft and fiber. Recently I've been drawn to textiles, paint and organic materials because I appreciate their tactility, especially during the pandemic. I also love working with fabric because it's something that I've done since I was a child, when my great aunt taught me how to dye fabric, crochet, knit, and sew. People often associate textiles with domesticity and femininity, which are often disregarded or undervalued in fine art and academic spaces. I want to disrupt this narrative by placing my fabric work in a fine art context and seeing how these materials fit into my studio practice. In doing so, I hope to pay homage to the women who came before me and the power of the black diaspora. 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 Selected Group Exhibitions 2021 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) Curation 2021 Subject Matters: Black Feminist Visions, Artsy (Online) Conference Presentations 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 Interviews and Art Publications ‘Black Feminist Visions’ celebrates new narratives for the portrayal of the Black femme body, Art Master Magazine 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 Bookshlf Curator Spotlight: In Conversation With Isis Davis-Marks , Bookshlf Blog Interview, Archive 02, Saint Maison Gallery |