There is Another Sky
Isis Davis-Marks
June 10 -July 1, 2023
Opening reception Saturday, June 10th 6-9pm.
This exhibition is entitled “There is another Sky” after a poem by Emily Dickenson. I love the way that this text expresses dualities, the way that it articulates Dickenson’s abilities to create both real and imaginary spaces filled with plants, sunshine and color. I use this piece as a point of departure for my body of work because it verbalizes many of the things I’ve been thinking about– passing time, aging and changing, as Emma Baldwin wrote in an analysis of the poem. These past couple years have been tumultuous from a historical standpoint. Many of us have dealt with the trials and tribulations of global pandemic, economic hardships, and deaths. I hope that I can use this as a source of personal and collective healing, a space where I can contemplate these blurry boundaries between the real world and the imaginary spaces that we construct to make our ways through the modern age. I am for this space to exist as a physical manifestation (or embodiment) of the hypnotic language that Dickenson uses via paintings, sculptures, and installations. In this space, I hope to paint another sky.
Isis Davis-Marks (b.1997) is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and writer based in New York City. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues including the Yale School of Art, the New York City Culture Club, and La Loma Projects. Her visual work has also been featured in the Rumpus and the Nation. In her writing practice, Isis focuses on covering contemporary art, and most of her written work draws from philosophical and art historical texts to discuss issues including representation and contemporary visual culture. Her articles have been referenced in the New York Times and published in Smithsonian magazine, Cultured magazine, Phillips Auctions, Artsy, Frieze (forthcoming), the Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, Communication Arts, King Kong Garçon, the Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. She is also a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art.