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Biography

Marlon Mullen (b. 1963) is an American artist whose work blends commercial graphic design with abstract painting, often incorporating fragmented text and geometric shapes in vibrant, dynamic compositions. Known for his bold color choices and rhythmic use of contrasting shapes, Mullen creates a sense of movement and energy in his art and plays on found images from art publications. Working from the NIAD Art Center in Richmond, California—a studio supporting artists with developmental disabilities—Mullen has created a distinctive style that continues to make an impact in contemporary art, particularly for its innovative integration of text and abstraction.

Mullen frequently references mass media like magazines in his work, particularly the covers of art publications like Artforum and Art in America. These images are reimagined as vibrant mosaics, with text becoming an integral graphic element, blurring the lines between language and image. Mullen also delves into concrete poetry, manipulating words in playful and abstract ways that layer and warp the letters. While some of his pieces include legible text, it is often fragmented or distorted, challenging conventional understandings of language and transforming the text into an image alone.

Mullen’s work first gained widespread critical acclaim at the 2019 Whitney Biennial. In 2024, Mullen became the first developmentally disabled artist to mount a solo exhibition at the MoMA in New York City. Prestigious institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art (New York and San Francisco), the RISD Museum, and the Berkeley Art Museum hold works by Mullen in their permanent collections. Mullen has earned recognition within Art Brut, a category of outsider art that celebrates self-taught, untrained artists.

--Hannah Sheridan

CV

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024, Projects: Marlon Mullen, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
2023, Marlon Mullen, JTT, New York City, NY
2020, Marlon Mullen, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
2019, Marlon Mullen: 2017 - 2018, JTT, New York, NY
2017, Marlon Mullen, JTT, New York, NY
2017, P, NIAD Art Center, Richmond, CA
2016, Marlon Mullen, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016, Marlon Mullen, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
2015, Marlon Mullen, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
2015, Marlon Mullen, JTT, New York, NY
2012, Marlon Mullen, White Columns, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions 

2024, Looking Back: The 14th White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York, NY Into the Brightness:
Artists from Creatively Explored, Creative Growth, and NIAD, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
2023, I have done it again. / One year in every ten / I manage it——, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
Into the Brightness: Artists from Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, & NIAD, Oakland ArtMuseum,Oakland, CA
2023, Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, RISD Museum, Providence, RI

2021, Nothing of the Month Club, Off Paradise, New York, NY
2020, The Art of Critique, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, the Netherlands
2019, SECA Art Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
2019, CE x CG x NIAD, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
2019, Whitney Biennial, Curated by Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2018, Way Bay 2, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
2018, Guerneville, NIAD Art Center, Richmond CA
2018, Marlon Mullen and Dino Matt, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR
2017, Summer Exhibition, Sorry We’re Closed Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2017, Affinity, monca, Chico, CA
2017, Trout Fishing in America, City Limits, Oakland, CA
2016, Outside, KARMA, Amagansett, NY. Curated by Matthew Higgs
2016, Looking Back: The 10th White Columns Annual, New York, NY. Curated by Matthew Higgs
2014, Under Another Name, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY. Curated by Thomas J. Lax
2014, Create, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art
2014, Gallery, Worcester, MA; Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; Longwood Center for the Visual
2014, Arts, Farmville, VA; and Washington State University, Museum of Art, Pullman, WA.
2013, MHMMML, International Art Objects, Los Angeles, CA
2013, Color and Form, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2011, After Shelley Duvall ‘72, Maccarone, New York, NY

Public Collections

Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
Columbus Museum in Columbus, GA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
ICA Miami, Miami, FL
Museum of Modern Art, New York NY
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
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

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