Artist: Calvin Marcus
Exhibition title: EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF
Venue: C L E A R I N G, Brussels, Belgium
Date: October 22, 2020 – January 31, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and C L E A R I N G
CLEARING is pleased to present EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, Calvin Marcus’s first solo exhibition in Brussels.
Through a dozen large paintings, Marcus expands his series of fragmented self-contained narratives, offering many discreet happenings. Dreamlike images, large fields of color, haunting twists, and missing parts are the autonomous realities that make up the compositions. These disjointed moments are meant to burn brightly and expire as one moves between paintings.
Normal objects seem to unravel and lose their fixed proportions. Scale is twisted and used recklessly to turn banality into greatness. In one painting a silhouette of a frog observes a commercial jet crossing a purple smog-filled sky. Is the frog easier to empathize with than a human? We might think it’s longing for connection and has a deeper sense of self than seems possible. An elephant on vacation enjoys a coke on the beach while blue tides calmly wash ashore. Next, a sculptural event: a mass of veiny flesh is slowly turning itself inward, producing a protruding tongue of a tit that eclipses a recently mowed lawn. Opting for absurdity over formality, the paintings evoke sentimentality and challenge the interpretative experience of the viewers.
With each painting having been reduced to the essential, viewers can get to the core efficiently. Physically passing through the works while also sinking into their own minds, they enter a designated open field of meaning: a space within the medium where Calvin Marcus carves a new path.
Calvin Marcus (born 1988, San Francisco, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles.
He received his MFA from UCLA in 2015. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held at The Power Station, Dallas; Peep-Hole, Milan; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles and C L E A R I N G New York. His work has been featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, New York as well as group exhibitions at Massimo De Carlo, London; Gagosian, Athens; Eva Presenhuber, Zurich; White Cube, London; and Greene Naftali, New York.
Calvin Marcus’s work is part of the collections of MoMA and the Whitney Museum, New York; MCA, Chicago; MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam; Paris Museum of Modern Art and Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Astrup Fearnley, Oslo; Rubell Museum, Miami; Aishti Foundation, Beirut; and K11, Hong Kong/Shanghai/Beijing.
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Tree & Sky, 2019, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Entertaining A Dog, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Cows +/- 30%, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 79 x 101 1/2 inches, 206,6 x 258 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Pink Landscape, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 79 x 101 1/2 inches, 206,6 x 258 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Frog & Plane, 2018, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 79 x 101 1/2 inches, 206,6 x 258 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Everything Going Through Itself, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 79 x 101 1/2 inches, 206,6 x 258 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Office Dance, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Folded Landscape & Parked Cars At Night, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl, graphite, charcoal and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Beach Elephant, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, The End, Thank You Very Much, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 79 x 101 1/2 inches, 206,6 x 258 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, In The Distance From Above, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Torn Apart But Still Functions, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl, graphite, charcoal and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 101 1/2 x 79 inches, 258 x 200,6 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Begonia, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 39 3/4 x 51 inches, 101 x 129,5 cm
Calvin Marcus, Begonia, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 39 3/4 x 51 inches, 101 x 129,5 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Begonia, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 62 3/8 x 79 3/4 inches, 158,5 x 202,5 cm
Calvin Marcus, Begonia, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 62 3/8 x 79 3/4 inches, 158,5 x 202,5 cm
Calvin Marcus, Untitled, 2020, Stoneware, 13 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 6 inches, 35 x 14 x 15 cm
Calvin Marcus, EVERYTHING GOING THROUGH ITSELF, 2020, exhibition view, C L E A R I N G, Brussels
Calvin Marcus, Begonia, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 62 3/8 x 79 3/4 inches, 158,5 x 202,5 cm
Calvin Marcus, Begonia, 2020, Watercolor, oil, vinyl and emulsified gesso on linen/canvas blend, 62 3/8 x 79 3/4 inches, 158,5 x 202,5 cm