MARCUS JAHMAL

‘In Marcus Jahmal’s new paintings, purple hurtles along the continuum of human history. The figures that populate his washy fields wear nothing at all, a self-abnegating refusal of millenia of class structure. They have become purple itself, their skin pulsating violet, as if emanating light. Jahmal’s colour sense is finely tuned, taking something of the rabid passion of the Fauvists and the emotional immediacy of the Neo-Expressionists (there are other overlaps, too: a rejection of three-dimensional space, for example). On the chromatic spectrum, purple exists somewhere between the tempestuous fury of red and the calm cool of blue. It takes both humours and makes its own. Purple vibrates at the uppermost length of the visible spectrum. Travel any further and you’ve left the physical realm. You can do that in a Marcus Jahmal picture, too.’—Max Lakin

Marcus Jahmal (b. 1990) lives and works in New York. He was raised in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights neighbourhood, growing up in a family with roots in the West Indies and American south. His paintings synthesise a diverse range of inspirations and autobiography, drawing from photographs, ancient rituals, and personal memories. Jahmal’s work is held in public collections internationally, including Allentown Museum, Allentown, PA ICA Miami, Miami, FL Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Zuzeum Art Centre, Rīga, Latvia.

A full press release by Max Lakin, writer, will follow.