Denver artist Marcus Fingerlin makes the familiar strange by skewing commonplace imagery, focusing on the nonsensical and ironic.
Multi-media artist Marcus Fingerlin focuses his work on the figure and his absurd life experiences. He spent two summers living at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, an experience that continues to inform his practice.
“I treat my art practice like writing a sitcom. Each piece is a joke, and when combined they form an absurd series meant to create an irreverent realism. By taking commonplace imagery and skewing it, I make the familiar strange. I am nothing but the people and culture around me. I am a social chameleon, a mirror. The work I make serves solely as cultural anthropology. I gather information about the times I’ve lived in, the people I have known and know, and the mythologies that permeate my American life and I capitalize on their nonsensical and ironic natures. Then I contrast them with the deep-seated emotion involved in defining self. And finally, in artist statements I like to write lofty-sounding sentences that have little to no actual meaning.”
Fingerlin graduated with a BFA from Colorado Mesa University where he studied ceramics and completed a post-baccalaureate program at Kent State University.
Denver, CO| marcusfingerlin.com| ig: @marcus.fingerlin
