MARCUS LESLIE SINGLETON
May 27 – June 13 2022
Soiled
This series of work was inspired and based on my personal archive. Referencing documents passed down to me by my grandparents, aunts and uncles. Old photos, letters, items, but predominantly and most importantly to me, their verbal story telling. There are selected phrases from these stories embedded in the paintings like roots in the soil. These are the exchanges that develop culture passed down generationally, through style, information, beliefs.
Soiled attributes these personal histories which, I’ve taken as my responsibility to tell and include them in the larger canon of African American history. Through Black traditional art- making as a way of survival, and not to glamorize only survival, but to take note of the innovations that are genius to our culture from Gee’s Bend Quilts to Hip Hop. And connecting these ideas in contention with my own practice to create images that self narrate.
– Marcus Leslie Singleton
Marcus Leslie Singleton was born in Seattle, Washington in 1990. He
Singleton's recent solo and group exhibitions include "Diagrams and Dilemmas" at Jupiter Contemporary in Miami Beach, Florida (2022); "Future Memories" at TURN Gallery in New York, New York (2021); "Shake Up The Room" at September Gallery in Hudson, New York (2021); "Summer Sun" curated by The Journal Gallery at Van de Weghe in East Hampton, New York (2021); Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery in New York, New York (2020); “MEANWHILE…” at Brilliant Champions in Brooklyn, New York (2020); “Up Trying To Remember a Dream” curated by Lizzie Renfrew Vogt at SPRING/BREAK Art Fair with SKAVO Gallery in New York, New York (2020); “CIRCUSLAND” at Turn Gallery in New York, New York (2019); “BOILING POINT” at Superposition Gallery in Los Angeles, California (2019); and “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” at Medium Tings in Brooklyn, New York (2018).
Work by Singleton is held in the public collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas.
Marcus Leslie Singleton lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Soiled
This series of work was inspired and based on my personal archive. Referencing documents passed down to me by my grandparents, aunts and uncles. Old photos, letters, items, but predominantly and most importantly to me, their verbal story telling. There are selected phrases from these stories embedded in the paintings like roots in the soil. These are the exchanges that develop culture passed down generationally, through style, information, beliefs.
Soiled attributes these personal histories which, I’ve taken as my responsibility to tell and include them in the larger canon of African American history. Through Black traditional art- making as a way of survival, and not to glamorize only survival, but to take note of the innovations that are genius to our culture from Gee’s Bend Quilts to Hip Hop. And connecting these ideas in contention with my own practice to create images that self narrate.
– Marcus Leslie Singleton
Marcus Leslie Singleton was born in Seattle, Washington in 1990. He
Singleton's recent solo and group exhibitions include "Diagrams and Dilemmas" at Jupiter Contemporary in Miami Beach, Florida (2022); "Future Memories" at TURN Gallery in New York, New York (2021); "Shake Up The Room" at September Gallery in Hudson, New York (2021); "Summer Sun" curated by The Journal Gallery at Van de Weghe in East Hampton, New York (2021); Tennis Elbow at The Journal Gallery in New York, New York (2020); “MEANWHILE…” at Brilliant Champions in Brooklyn, New York (2020); “Up Trying To Remember a Dream” curated by Lizzie Renfrew Vogt at SPRING/BREAK Art Fair with SKAVO Gallery in New York, New York (2020); “CIRCUSLAND” at Turn Gallery in New York, New York (2019); “BOILING POINT” at Superposition Gallery in Los Angeles, California (2019); and “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” at Medium Tings in Brooklyn, New York (2018).
Work by Singleton is held in the public collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas.
Marcus Leslie Singleton lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.