About the Artist
Janice Marin's work meditates on the concepts of shape, color, and movement. Marin, whose painted sphere’s define middle ground or what she calls “the third space”, is interested in the sphere's powerful structure: its walls, both external and internal, and the material possibilities created by those boundaries. Each mark results from a careful balance of reimagining, removing, and abstracting the form. Centering within the visual field and pivoting, Janice considers how the sphere measures a body, or the circumference of it, left behind. Sometimes it is solid or fibrous, other times it makes space pushing up against the outset edges. The spheres can be hidden by the foreground, almost flattened with only a glimpse of the corner. This negotiation between the background and foreground is an entry point into the present.
Janice Marin is a painter and first-generation Canadian with Argentinian blood. Marin comes from a lineage of immigrant farmers, makers, and artists luchando for security. She was shaped by her grandmother's kitchen, her mother’s sewing machine, her grandfather's garden, and her uncle's patience. A life of changes, relocations, and natural disasters has taught her that home can be found through contemplation of the present, in the people you love, and not in the place where you settle.
Her work is a manifestation of persistence in the present, constant renewal of place, and shifting belonging. Through painting, drawing, and poetry, she distills visual cues into queer abstract realms that are both familiar and untrodden. Marin received a BFA from The Ontario College of Art and Design University (Toronto, Canada) and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL). She lives in the “world’s largest village,” Oak Park, IL, a short L train ride into Chicago (her favorite city), with her girlfriend, two children, and three cats.
Marin has exhibited nationally in venues such as the CapitalOne art program (Chicago, IL) and Power of the Feminine, Art NXT Level Projects/33 Contemporary (Chicago, IL). She founded Marin Gallery in Waterloo, Iowa, where she curated several exhibitions and provided a critical platform for artistic expression and community dialogue. During her undergraduate studies, Marin was nominated for the Taylor Award in Canada from The Correctional Services of Canada for her role as Artist Facilitator at a medium-security institution. Her work is included in notable collections such as the Allianz Reinsurance Collection (Zurich, Switzerland) and UCLA (Los Angeles, CA). Marin is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at Colorado Mesa University (Mesa, CO).