Marlon Mullen

Marlon Mullen (b. 1963, Richmond, CA)
Marlon Mullen is a painter known for his vibrant, abstracted interpretations of magazine covers and graphic layouts, often drawing from art publications available at the NIAD Art Center in Richmond, California, where he has worked since 1986. His paintings are composed of bold, textured shapes and gestural marks that reduce and reorganize visual elements from his source material. Mullen often abstracts text, barcodes, and design elements into striking compositions that blur the line between image and meaning. Through this process, he emphasizes formal qualities like color, shape, and rhythm, while shifting focus away from the original content of the images he references.

Mullen’s work has been widely exhibited, including solo shows at JTT in New York, Atlanta Contemporary, and White Columns. He was featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and the SECA Art Award exhibition at SFMOMA, among other major group exhibitions. His paintings are in the collections of institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, SFMOMA, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the Portland Art Museum. Mullen received the 2014 Wynn Newhouse Award and is represented by Adams and Ollman in Oregon and Bridget Donahue in New York.