David Marsh

All My X’s

February 11th - March 1st 2024

While the X is not the only content I’ve worked with over the last ten years, it has been a consistently recurring theme. I’ve used the X as a motif to stabilize the painting compositionally, and to provide a symbol for conceptual response. The X is a simple symbol with a multitude of meanings. Political figures and pop culture acts have adopted the X in their names. It is the Roman numeral ten. At one time it was the binding signature of an illiterate. It symbolizes a kiss. It marks something void. It demarcates a point of interest on a map. It defies a choice between M and F on a form. It declares a movie strictly for adults. Twitter is now X.

The X is in the background of thoughts that weigh on me about American political structures: money, power, privilege. These subjects are discussed more than ever in the context of the galleries and the art institutions, even the art itself. I am not making paintings about them, but American-type painting includes these systems regardless. The X is also on the flag of the Confederacy. Powerful images reside in the work whether I want them or not. I use expensive mediums in an excessive manner. Piling layers of paint one atop another resembles an American tendency to cover the past and move on. Scraping through these layers to reveal the colors and textures digs up the history. American history contains much that’s been covered up and much to dig through.

The structures that produced that history are intimately connected to American painting as showcase of talent and its relationship to value, even in abstractions that look like they’re only about themselves. The early American abstractionists had the freedom to paint what felt new and bold. I look at the last few years of American painting as a machine, producing a monotonous line of selfish expressionism. It values materialism above all else and cynically promises a market for everyone. I mock that machine by painting in gold and oil on couture fabrics. But that critique is paired with a deep exploration of painting about paint, using techniques and styles of historical movements. These works participate in an American painting history. My practice is materials-based abstraction, however haunted.

David Marsh was born in New Britain, CT in 1984 and has lived in Miami since 2003. He received an BFA from MIUAD in 2007, and an MFA in painting from the University of Miami in 2010. Since moving to Miami, David has dedicated much of his time outside of painting dedicated to curating and coordinating art shows – sometimes working with galleries and with artists in the entire execution of shows. In 2006, he had his first solo show, Looking for Labels, and curated his first show, The Wild, Wild Wynwood at Edge Zones in early 2007. Since then, David has served as an Associate Curator for Edge Zones Gallery. He also founded and directs Flowerbox

Projects, located in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood for the past eight years, presenting multiple shows per year for emerging artists, curating over 30 shows over this period. Exhibitions include: The Miami Creative Movement, Center forVisual Communication, 2022; Supechief, Aqua Miami, Miami, FL, 2018; Trendkill (solo), Box Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, 2015 Clean dressed, dirty mouth, Edge Zones, Miami, 2014; Abstract MIAMI, 2010; indirect quote (solo), Emerson Dorsch, Miami, 2010; Motley Crew, UM Wynwood Project Space, 2009, curated by Hernan Bas; The David Gefen Show (two-person) and Recent Paintings (solo), Edge Zones, Miami, 2008; Recent Painting, Twenty Twenty Projects, Miami 2007; Zones Contemporary Art Fair, Edge Zones, Miami, 2007; Mix, Deluxe Arts, Miami, 2007; Quiet, Lombardi Properties, Miami, 2006; Hot, New, Raw, Fresh, Awesome, Young, Emerging, Talent, Dorsch Gallery, Miami, 2006. Selected Flowerbox projects exhibitions: Christine Navin, Septillion. Brandon Opalka, On The Wrong Side of History. Gabriel Madan, Cool Your Jets. Walter Darby Bannard,Unseen works on paper. Victoria Ravelo, Take me home. Nicole Salcedo, Numina. Alejandra Moros & Amber Tutwiler (Two person show). Karli Evans, Lucid.