We are thrilled to be presenting a new series of paintings by Armando Marino that demonstrate a shift in painterly style and execution. Having immersed himself in a prolonged period of experimentation with paint and its application he has combined techniques learned from observing paintings throughout history with his own painterly style. The result is a complex painterly approach tackling the familiar subjects he has become known for.
By using parody, pastiche, and a vast repertoire of images from magazines, the internet, books, and the history of art his work offers a unique and sarcastic approach using the painting as a space of power and exclusion. The paintings in Feeding the River are confrontational and controversial, they expose the complexity of human relationships and cultural interactions. They tackle subjects about race, sex, human trafficking, and cultural identity. The painting of the same name portrays Marino reflecting on the bank of a river. He sees the river as a metaphor for the constantly shifting discourse covered in his paintings.
The paintings are deeply referential and intentionally difficult to label. Coming from a rich multicultural background (originally from Cuba) Marino has lived in France, the Netherlands and now resides in the United States. He objects to the classification of artists as black, Cuban or Afro Descent. Marino carefully appropriates, reorganises, and re-contextualises imagery from different sources to exacerbate and make conflicts visible. In his paintings conventions, traditions, categorisation, and influences are not a restriction au contraire. They serve as a detonator to display a heterogeneous, multilayered, and complex paintings in subject and technique, they are just the perfect exponent of the artist himself.
