Vulture
The Brooklyn Rail
The New Yorker

JTT is proud to present its fourth solo show with Marlon Mullen (b. 1963, Richmond, CA). Collectively, the works on view span just over 25 years and include some of his earliest, never before shown paintings from the late 1990s as well as his newest works from the past several years. 

Mullen’s early compositions, which line the back gallery, consist of abstract forms layered thick on paper. Many have a broad horizon line that anchors the composition which otherwise include expressive lines of color weaving between pools and splatters of paint. Mullen paints in acrylic with his canvas or paper flat on the surface of the table allowing for rich color to build up over time as the paint dries.

On the opposite wall in the same gallery are works on canvas that span from 2012 to 2016. In these Mullen begins to draw inspiration from magazine covers and advertisements, transforming his source material into interlocking forms and abstract shapes. Along the west wall are paintings that all feature Mullen’s meditation on the barcode into a simple pattern of six to eight carefully painted stripes.

In the front gallery, more recent paintings from 2014 to 2022 feature deliberate compositions where Mullen’s source material becomes more pronounced. In one Mullen depicts an advertisement for Pace Gallery’s 2006 Robert Irwin exhibition titled “Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue” in his unique method of writing which involves tracing the contours of each letter with the background color. Since the 1990s, Mullen has worked at NIAD (Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development) Art Center, a progressive art studio in Richmond, California that supports the endeavors of artists with disabilities. Mullen is autistic and is among the 40% of individuals who are autistic who are nonspeaking. Thus his engagement with text, let alone the coded dialogues of contemporary art, undoes neurotypical understandings of language and education. 

Marlon Mullen was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and received the SECA Art Award which included an exhibition of his paintings at SFMOMA the same year. He has exhibited widely both in the US and abroad, including solo shows at Massimo De Carlo, Hong Kong (2021), Adams and Ollman (2020, 2016), JTT (2019, 2017, 2015), NIAD (2017), Jack Fischer Gallery (2016), Atlanta Contemporary (2015), and White Columns (2012). He has been included in group exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Museum, the Studio Museum of Harlem, and the RISD museum among many others. Mullen is a 2015 recipient of the Wynn Newhouse Award and is represented by JTT in New York and Adams & Ollman in Portland, Oregon. Marlon Mullen’s first monograph co-published by JTT and Adams and Ollman was released in 2021. His work is in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; ICA Miami, Miami, FL; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; RISD Museum, Providence, RI; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.