Image courtesy of Marlon Forrester

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to represent the artwork of Marlon Forrester, an artist, educator, and athlete working in Boston, MA. Forrester’s work centers primarily on the corporate use of the black body, or the body as a logo. We recently chatted with Forrester about his work, his life, and his influences:

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery: How were you introduced to the arts, and when did you know you wanted to pursue it?

Marlon Forrester: I grew up watching family members take part in constructing sculptures/floats and performing in different costumes for Carnival. There was no real separation between art and culture while growing up as a youth. I come from a rich cultural background in which five different ethnic groups; Black, Indian, Amerindia, European and Chinese exist in Guyanese culture. It is indeed a melting pot for both race and religion.

AOG: What, to you, is the most important part of your practice?

MF: The most important part of my practice is my exploration of concepts related to the black male body and basketball through performance, painting, drawing, sculpture, large scale installations, and video. Transformation and ritual is the foundation element.

AOG: You were a professor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. How has your work as an educator informed your studio practice?

MF: I worked previously as a professor at SMFA but currently teach as a graduate adjunct instructor at MCA. While teaching at SMFA I taught watercolor and paper, essentially a mixed media class that explored the additive and reductive properties of water. The material application of paint is an emotional space for transformation through mark making.

AOG: In your “Passing Series,” a performance based body of work, you lie prone in public places, tossing a basketball in the air. Can you speak a bit about the series, as well as the way the public in those spaces reacted while you were passing?

MF: In the "Passing Series" the audience responded to my performance in public spaces with a certain sense of excitement, engagement, and curiosity. Some of the viewers attempted to and wanted to interact with me throughout the performance by either pretending to reach for the basketball or walking in close proximity to my body. The "Passing Series" remains a celebration of the slave passage in which slaves were brought from Africa to the Americas.

AOG: You’ve mentioned the importance of self care in your studio practice. What is self care for you, and what does it do for your work as a whole?

MF: Self care is essential to all human beings and within the context of my studio practice it is the ability to remain unrestrained, untethered, released from the formal constructs that inhibit compositionally and materially play. Painting with both hands, splattering paint, spraying paint on to surfaces, painting upside down or from a state of imbalance serves to contextualize and parenthetically flatten out space in my work.

AOG: What was a moment that really stuck out to you in your career, and why was it important to you as an artist?

MF: My entrance into Yale as a graduate student for Painting/Printmaking radically shifted my perspective on art making. Color theory, critical and theoretical spaces for thinking and art production moved into the forefront of my thinking. Performance which has always been an innate aspect of my identity became an acceptable tool that I could incorporate into my practice. I think having Magdalena Campos Pons as a mentor. Other instructors such as Peter Halley, Robert Storr, and Huma Bhaba, Mickalene Thomas and other amazing artists also elevated how I thought about art not just as passion but as a commodity connected to the art market.

AOG: Can you tell us a bit more about yourself outside of your work?

MF: I'm married, have two beautiful children, write poetry, freestyle, still shoot hoops, love chess and frequently find that mentorship through teaching is also a driving passion of mine.

AOG: Any advice for the next generation of artists?

MF: My advice to the next generation of artists is quite simple, "Be the change that you want to see.” I think, essentially give yourself the space to believe that your reality and future can be formed by your dedication to your dream. Each mark, each cut, each thought buildings on top of another and is of great importance so use them wisely before someone else does.
—

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery looks forward to hosting our inaugural solo exhibition with Marlon Forrester in September of 2021.

BACK TOGETHER

June 10 – July 18, 2021

Featuring: Clint Baclawski, Teddy Benfield, Mishael Coggeshall-Burr, Austin Eddy, Marlon Forrester, Holly Harrison, Lavaughan Jenkins, Katelyn Ledford, Kristina McComb, Susan Murie, Wilhelm Neusser, Haley Wood, Natalia Wróbel

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to present Back Together, a group exhibition curated to showcase strong, new pieces by our represented artists, as well as introduce high quality works by emerging artists. Featuring primarily local artists, Back Together seeks to open dialogue with the Boston arts community, focusing on work that presents an interesting process or concept. It also serves as a celebration of reconnection after the pandemic. The artists featured represent many different mediums, disciplines, and ideas, and come together to form a full picture of the rich variety in contemporary art today.

Clint Baclawski (b. 1981, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania) is a contemporary artist working with photography, technology, light, and space.
His solo exhibition locations include San Luis Obispo, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Boston, Massachusetts; Edinburgh, Scotland; and group shows at the Chelsea Art Museum, Danforth Museum, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, San Diego Art Institute, The Jen Bekman Gallery, and the University College Falmouth in England. His work is included in private and institutional collections. Baclawski has been featured in FRAME magazine, The Boston Globe, The Creator’s Project, Boston Home magazine, Designboom, and The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Volume II. Clint’s studio is located in Boston’s South End.

Teddy Benfield works primarily as a painter, screen printer and photographer. His works consist of a mixture of the three mediums to create a dialogue between traditional still life genre painting and the relationships individuals have with marketplace and consumerism through the internet culture of today.

Signage combines the modern product with interior space yet has the ability to transform the modern pedestrian back in time. Representational imagery introduces the past to the present and pays homage to hand painted signs as well as the comments of class and value in traditional still life painting while room for abstraction is absorbed within traditional advertisement qualities.

Teddy Benfield is a Boston based artist from Connecticut (b. 1992). He received his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (2018) and his BFA in Visual arts from Union College (2015) as well as a certificate in Sneaker Design from Fashion Institute of Technology (2019).

Mishael Coggeshall-Burr, High Line IV. — Mishael Coggeshall-Burr, *High Line IV.*

Mishael Coggeshall-Burr integrates the art of photography and oil painting to create novel and compelling images on canvas. Taking blurred shots with a 35mm camera, the artist searches for peripheral scenes with cinematic color and tone. He translates selected images into abstract-realist paintings with convincing color, formal structure, and subtle references to art history. Through his actions Mishael questions both the truth of photography and the fiction of painting: we enter a liquid, cinematic space, capturing the magic moment when Alice seems to step through the looking glass. The photorealistic image melts away, the prosaic merges with poetry.

“We live in a mostly blurry world. Our eyes only actually focus on a tenth of our field of vision at any one time. Our viewpoint, emotions, and context blur our memories. The landscapes I paint are in some way our genuine environment: the backgrounds to our lives, always present and often out of focus.”

Mishael studied painting at Middlebury College, The Glasgow School of Art, and the Art Student's League in New York. His artistic adventures have led him to many countries and continents, with many images from his travels featured in his art exhibitions. He lives, works and paints in Montague, MA with his wife and four children.

Austin Eddy, Every Duck In Its Place While Moving From Here To There Forgetting Nothing — Austin Eddy, *Every Duck In Its Place While Moving From Here To There Forgetting Nothing*

Austin Eddy was born in Boston, MA (USA) in 1986 and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Select recent exhibitions include: Fresh Windows Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (2018), SetUp 2018 Art Fair, Cellar Contemporary (Italy), Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA (2018), Ampersand Gallery in Portland, OR (2018), David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX (2017), Dallas Art Fair (2017), Code Art Fair, Bendixen Contemporary Art. Copenhagen, DK. (2016), Agnes B. Gallerie, Paris, FR (2016), and Left Field Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2015). He recently completed the Liquitex International Residency in London, England (2018). Austin Eddy is the founder and curator of EDDYSROOM, a nomadic curatorial project launched in 2015.

Marlon Forrester, born in Guyana, South America, is an artist and educator raised in Boston, MA. Forrester is a graduate of School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, B.A 2008 and Yale School of Art, M.F.A. 2010. He is a resident artist at African-American Masters Artist Residency Program (AAMARP) adjunct to the Department of African-American Studies in association with Northeastern University. He has shown both internationally and nationally, concerned with the corporate use of the black body, or the body as logo, Forrester’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, and multimedia works reflect meditations on the exploitation implicit in the simultaneous apotheosis and fear of the muscular black figure in America.

Holly Harrison lives and works in Concord, MA. She received an MA in creative writing from The City College of New York and a BA from Wesleyan University. Her artwork has been featured at galleries and museums throughout the country and is held in private and corporate collections nationally and internationally. Additionally, she has curated two well-received shows at the Concord Center for the Visual Arts, where she was subsequently invited to join the Board of Trustees.

Lavaughan Jenkins, Skin I’m In — Lavaughan Jenkins, *Skin I’m In*

Lavaughan Jenkins is a painter, printmaker, and sculptor. He was raised in Pensacola, Florida and currently creates his work in Boston, MA. He received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2005. Since that time, Jenkins has become a recipient of the 2019 James and Audrey Foster Prize awarded annually by the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston. In 2016, he was named Emerging Artist of the year at Kingston Gallery in Boston, MA, Jenkins is a recipient of the 2015 Blanche E. Colman Award and in 2002 received the Rob Moore Grant in Painting. He has exhibited his work most recently at venues such as Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (Boston), The Painting Center (NY), Suffolk University Gallery (Boston), and Oasis Gallery (Beijing). Jenkins donates annually to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design Auction which supports student scholarships.

Katelyn Ledford is an artist living and working in Boston, Massachusetts, but born and bred in the American South. She received her MFA in Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. Ledford’s work is a consideration of the role of images in shaping the curated portrait of women at large and individually while also reflecting on the complex and often painful reality of what it means to be a woman and artist. She uses appropriated images sourced from historical paintings, television shows, social media, and Google fever dreams while contrasting them against improvisational symbols and shapes in order to create deconstructed portraits. The tone across her work lies in a mix of cynicism, humor, and absurdist logic— like the feeling of sucking on a sour candy, you smile through the pain and pleasure.

Ledford was featured in SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2020 in a two-person booth, “The Person- Less Portrait,” curated by Abigail Ogilvy Gallery. She has been featured in exhibitions internationally with select group exhibitions at Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY; Public Gallery, London, UK; Abigail Ogilvy Gallery, Boston, MA; and Plan X Art Gallery, Milan, IT.

Kristina McComb's practice focuses on the intersection of photography and sculpture. Through layering images and light, McComb examines the passing of time, merging past, present, and future in a haunting composition. Present is one in a three-part series of lightbox sculptures. Printed on acetate and suspended in backlit steel structures, McComb’s photographs drift and overlap, appearing fragile and untethered. She arranges selected fragments from a range of different shots into one coherent image, defined by their relationships with each other. The foreground is sharp and clear, while the background layers blur into ghosts of the original image. This subtle play of light, line, and texture creates a delicate exploration of transience versus permanence.

Kristina McComb is an interdisciplinary artist from Western Mass. She graduated with Distinction from Greenfield Community College, receiving her Associates of Science in Visual Art with a concentration in Photography. McComb also holds a BFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Her work has been exhibited since 2014, most notably at the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center in Brattleboro, VT and the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Susan Murie is a New England-based artist. She most recently exhibited at the Members Prize Show, Cambridge Art Association, 2021 and was awarded Artist of the Year by juror Ben Sloat, Director of the MFA in Visual Arts program at Lesley Art + Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Susan was also awarded a CAA Artist of the Year, Members Prize Show, 2020, by juror Jessica Roscio, Curator, Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University. Her artwork was published in the London-based INKQ, Inky Leaves Publishing, Issue 9, Spring 2020 as well as featured in The Hand Magazine, Issue #26 in the Fall of 2019. Her work was juried into and sold at the MassArt Auction in 2020 and 2019 and is juried into the 2021 auction as well. Murie’s work has been featured on The Curated Fridge, Autumn 2018 Show (Somerville, MA) curated by Kat Kiernan Editor-in-Chief of the photography magazine Don’t Take Pictures, and The Curated Fridge, Spring 2018 Show curated by Francine Weiss Senior Curator, Newport Art Museum. In addition to private collections, Murie’s work is in the permanent collection of Fidelity and the City of Somerville.

Wilhelm Neusser’s artwork has been widely exhibited and he has received numerous awards and fellowships. His recent museum exhibitions include the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, 2019), the Fruitlands Museum (Harvard, MA, 2019), and MASS MoCa (North Adams, MA, 2018). In 2020 he was honored with a finalist grant in Painting from the Mass Cultural Council. Additional awards and recognition include the MASS MoCA Studio Program (2017), Vermont Studio Center (2013), Finalist, Wilhelm-Morgner-Prize, Soest (2010), International Artist in Residence, Boots Contemporary Art Space (St. Louis, MO, 2009), ZVAB Phönix Art Prize (2007). Neusser’s work has been included in notable publications, including The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Artscope Magazine, Boston.com, and Big Red & Shiny.

Wilhelm Neusser was born in Cologne, Germany. He relocated to the United States in 2011, and currently lives and works in Somerville, MA.

Haley Wood, WOAD, Page 1 — Haley Wood, *WOAD, Page 1*

Haley Wood is a fiber artist, surface designer, and musician living in Boston, MA. She has recently received her BFA in Fibers at Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Haley is influenced by 1960’s and 70’s folk horror films, illuminated manuscripts, mid century home decor, and her Omi. She also plays guitar and violin for the Croaks.

Natalia Wróbel is an artist based in Encinitas, CA after spending time in New York City, Boston, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Wrobel studied Studio Art and Art History at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. She furthered her study at the Lorenzo de'Medici Institute in Florence and then the New York Studio School (NYSS). She received the NYSS Mercedes Matter Fellowship in 2012, and the Murray Art Prize in 2015. In 2017, Wrobel completed a painting residency at the Berlin Art Institute. Her work has been featured at international art fairs including Art Basel: Miami, Texas Contemporary, and Art SouthHampton and has been an official selection at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and MassArt Auction. Her paintings have been featured in publications in the US and Europe, in coursework at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and are included in public and private collections around the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. Wrobel's work is represented by Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston, MA.