Marin Majic: Dawning

Megan Mulrooney is thrilled to present a solo exhibition of paintings by New York-based artist Marin Majic. An inaugural exhibition of the gallery’s, Dawning will participate in the Getty’s PST Arts & Science initiative. Fittingly, the exhibition is a mesmerizing exploration of time, rebirth, and the interplay between humanity and the cosmos. Dawning will feature a series of oil paintings on linen and will be on view from September 14 – October 26, 2024.

Each figure in Dawning stands on the precipice of engulfment: an astronaut gazes in awe at deep galactic space; a swimmer pauses beneath a vast network of small waterfalls; a woman lies in a room whose floors morph fantastically into an expanse of desert tundra. His paintings often feature romantic nightscapes, which evoke the time travel inherent in stargazing and reflect the cyclical, cosmic forces that shape life on earth. From sand to sky, these figures are enveloped by their surroundings, a compositional strategy that reflects the dissonance between our biological time and the vast expanse of universal and geological scales. 

The term Dawning embodies the exhibition’s multifaceted thematic interests, symbolizing new beginnings, transitions, and a sense of hope that lies in rebirth. Dawn, as a time of day, appears in many paintings that feature suns hung low in the sky with multicolored sunrises beaming around them. This imagery marks a shift from Majic’s previous exhibition, which featured works predominantly set at night, evoking a sense of solitude and melancholy. In Dawning, however, there is a noticeable move towards more communal or transitional scenes—figures are often seen facing the rising sun or are represented in moments of expectation, whether in crowded environments, intimate settings, or within the quietude of their own thoughts.

This new series also reflects Majic's personal journey, as he made this body of work during a period that also saw the birth of his second child and the inauguration of a new gallery. Furthermore, the artist subtly channels our broader social context, capturing the anxiety and hope of creating amidst political turmoil, crystallizing a feeling of anticipation for what lies ahead.

Majic’s subjects are sourced from a wide array of visual material, ranging from advertisements and pop culture to stock imagery, Old Master paintings, and even personal photographs and self-portraits. This eclectic mix, drawn from both the delightfully artificial and the art historic, serves as the raw material for Majic's creative process. Under his brush, these disparate elements are transformed, uplifted from the mundane to the mystical, rendered with a quasi-mythological grandeur.

Majic’s approach begins with a collage of images, followed by a painting method that also intersperses layers of colored pencil. This method allows for various manipulations, resulting in bursts of color that punctuate the otherwise dark scenes. At times, Majic continues to draw on top of the chalky surfaces, establishing focal points that emerge from the surrounding hazy, memory-like obscurity.

Marin Majic (b. 1979, Frankfurt, DE; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, US) studied at the Academy of Visual Arts, Zagreb, Croatia. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Nino Mier Gallery, New York; Galerie Isa, Mumbai; Marc Straus Gallery, New York; and ARNDT Fine Art, Berlin. Majic’s paintings have also been included in group exhibitions organized by Grimm Gallery, New York, NY; Fortnight Institute, New York, NY; Nino Mier Gallery, New York, NY; Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam, NL; VIN VIN, Wein, AS; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City; James Cohan, New York, NY; Gaa Gallery, Cologne, DE; Galerie Isa, Mumbai; the Knoxville Museum of Art; and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY, among others.