ARTIST STATEMENT
In my most recent body of work I am exploring themes surrounding vulnerability, mythology and personal experience regarding mental illness. By revealing my medical documents, I explore what it means to have your mental illness visible when it is invisible otherwise to the naked eye. Orbis Oculi and the Slanted Door I do the same but more obliquely referencing the slanted door in most mental health facilities designed to prevent self-harm. Lastly, in Waxing Moon I address the idea of the lunar cycle as it relates to the mythology surrounding mental health and lunacy (which is derived from geographic concepts of the moon affecting the body). In showing these varied discourses I seek to make visible the culture surrounding mental health that both facilitates stigma and causes those to hide their own mental health for fear of ostracization yet internally being defined by concepts foreign to the general public.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Malik John-Marc Purvis (they/them) is a Chicago native, artist and educator who primarily works in image based media that uses concepts driven from mental illness and perceptual psychology to produce paintings that both question and portray the myriad of depictions and visual stimuli brought on by it. Having matriculated in 2016 at University of Illinois Champaign Urbana (UIUC) they studied both Painting and New Media attaining both degrees with a minor in Art History. During their time at UIUC they studied both under a French school of painting at IAU: France (Institut Américain Universitaire) and the psychology department studying perceptual psychology. They later finished their studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in May of 2021.
Malik has exhibited at Baby Blue Gallery (Chicago, IL, Richard Wright Gallery at Cook Lake College, St. Louis Artist’s Guild, Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia, PA), and at Special Features (Chicago, IL). They have been awarded residencies with full fellowships to both Ox-Bow (2021) and Skowhegan (2022), Chica go’s Intuit Institute of Outsider Art as an Emerging Museum Professional (2022) and will be a fellow at Virginia Creative Center for the Arts in January of 2023.
© Malik John-Marc Purvis