The Arts & Business Council, Blackbird Media, and F&M Bank have teamed up to present the Artist of the Week on The Nashville Sign. This week’s featured artist is Marlos E’van!
Marlos is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Nashville whose work interweaves painting, performance, and filmmaking. Their work creates worlds in which their art recollects black histories through reenacted scenes demonstrating the full spectrum of joy, pain, celebration, sorrow, and complex emotions.
Marlos’ own life also informs first-person narratives in their paintings, targeting marginalization stemming from a queer black history rooted in their home state of Mississippi.
Marlos received their BFA from Watkins College of Art, Design and Film in Nashville. In addition to their work as an artist, Marlos co-founded and currently co-designs the McGruder Social Practice Artist Residency (M-SPAR) out of the McGruder Center in North Nashville. Working as an educator in a hard-hit redlined Nashville neighborhood, Marlos actively listens to their pupils, gathering stories that also inform their paintings.
Marlos has received recognition from publications including Hyperallergic and Native Magazine. Their work is included in multiple Southern collections, and it has been shown in VA, TN, GA, and NY. They were awarded a Mellon Foundation Grant for McGruder, as well as a Metro Arts Thrive grant. They are currently represented by Elijah Wheat Showroom in NYC and The Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville.
To see more of Marlos E’van’s work, follow them on Instagram @marlosevan
Want to be featured on The Nashville Sign? Visual artists working in any medium, who are members* of the Arts & Business Council at the Basic Level ($30 annually) or above, are eligible to apply for Artist of the Week on The Nashville Sign.
*Those unable to become members due to financial barriers can be granted a waiver. Contact us at [email protected] to be confidentially considered for a waiver.