Marlon Tobias

he/him

USA

Marlon Tobias is a figurative artist who approaches his work with the eye of an archivist and the heart of an empath. As a New York native born from a mother of southern roots and a father of Jamaican descent, he is informed by the African diaspora's history and multifaceted spirit.

He has shown in numerous galleries, including the Caroyln M. Wilson Gallery, The Centre Gallery, and the Carrollwood Cultural Center.

Marlon Tobias received his Bachelor's degree in Communications and Design at Florida A&M University and is completing his Master's degree in Studio Art at the University of South Florida.

My work takes an explorational dive into the often underreported and understudied narratives of Black people. Specifically, I have a passion for capturing the stories of African Americans and their place and space in the cultural quilt of America.

My work often explores human narrative through the use of extensive gestural posturing in my subjects. I use striking lines and bold strokes to draw attention to the toggle between permanence and impermanence that Black people have been systematically placed on living under in America. I utilize a landscape of various colors to illuminate my figures while creating a scene that prominently features Black people to challenge the construct of Blackness, Whiteness, and the privilege that plays in between. My pieces comprise a range of hues and colors, yet each is recognizably and phenotypically Black. Like all Black people, their identities, actions, and stories are more than the color of their skin.

In this spirit of my extensive visual documentation, I live as an artist, archivist, historian, and storyteller. At the core, my work strives to reveal the richness of African American life. My paintings represent the more pedestrian circumstances of Black folks living: reading, walking down the street with friends, laughing. These everyday expressions of Black folks existing is in itself an act of humanizing subjects that are often only seen in their relationship to the opposition and far less realized in their day-to-day circumstances as people.

My aesthetic creates familiar spaces that are rich in storytelling and rooted in drama, history and intimacy.

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