Tolerance: The Art of Chris Mars
Gutsy in the most visceral way and moral in the highest sense of the word, Chris Mars holds nothing back in his painfully true illustrations of Monsters and Angels. These works require us to walk, single file and for as long as we can tolerate it, along the skinny path between terror and beauty. Well versed in the terrible sublime, Mars has disciplined himself to look hard at the slippage of worlds between sanity and insanity, fear and acceptance, and challenges us to do no less. The paintings, drawings and animations should come labeled "DANGER: EXTREME SELF-REFLECTION REQUIRED." --Peter Spooner, Curator, Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota DuluthChris Mars occupies two coveted realms in the art world. Being a consummate artist's artist, he's become a focal point and benchmark for legions of established and upcoming talent in the art world. Also, despite pushing illustrative work into the extremes of the surreal and abstract, he's also tapped into a visceral vein that draws in the erudite as well as the common man with little time for art theory. An envious position to straddle. Few achieve it, let alone with the pure intensity and uncompromising aesthetic ideals. Bottom line, whether his art is placed in the lofty museum halls of fine art, or in the back alley underground gallery, you'll be able to tell where Mars's work is hanging by seeing where the crowd is gathered in the room. --Tom Hazelmyer, OX-OP/AmRep--HAZE XXLChris Mars's work is saturated with emotion. While we are immediately drawn to his remarkable representations--lovely, lush paint and scary storybook settings--it is the content that grabs us. His sad-eyed nightmare creatures look directly into our hearts. He overwhelms our discomfort and forces us to redefine humanity. --John Vanco, Director, Erie Art MuseumFerocious and lyrical. Chris Mars finds the complex beauty in those often seen as monsters and the monstrous quality of those perceived as beautiful. The consciousness of our own mortality, which lurks, hovers in our peripheral vision, is here made flesh. In his work, we see the true faces of people, stripped of all artifice. --Jessica Joslin, ArtistThe recent work of Chris Mars lies somewhere between the tongue-and-cheek humor of Richard Price and the debauchery of Hieronymus Bosch. His explorations into the pictorial effects and textural portraiture are spirited with an opening aperture into our own personal demons. Mars's work is a fresh return to honesty in contemporary art...no matter how far down the shadowed path they may take us. --Michael J. Beam, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Castellani Art Museum