A Conversation with Mario Moore
Mario Moore, born in 1987, is a painter based in Detroit, Michigan. Moore received a BFA in Illustration from the College for Creative Studies (2009) and an MFA in Painting from the Yale School of Art (2013). His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Detroit Institute of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Princeton University Art Museum. Painting portraits of black people in positions of power, Moore’s subjects consist of his family, friends, and strangers as he looks to represent people from a variety of backgrounds. His most recent series highlights the often overlooked contributions of blue-collar workers on college campuses and in museums.
FORM got the chance to sit down with Moore during his month and a half stay on campus as Duke’s Artist in Residence. We caught up with him in his temporary studio at the Rubenstein Arts Center to discuss his family’s background in the arts, work in educational environments, and upcoming exhibitions and bodies of work.
Abby Shlesinger: How did the relationship with your parents and then the community of artists that you met growing up impact your desire to become an artist?
Mario Moore: I think a lot of young artists are faced with the timid approach of their parents saying, “You want to become an artist?” But that was very different for me because my mother is an artist. And even though my dad doesn't necessarily understand the life of an artist, he appreciates artwork. And so for me, the inspiration for becoming an artist came from my mom. So there was always support from both my mom and my dad to pursue art as a viable option for my future. So it was never anything that was timid or kind of withstanding or the concept that, no, you can't do that, that's not the best approach. My mother has always been an inspiration for me, growing up to become an artist, and then the friends that she had, who were also artists. One became a mentor, his name is Richard Lewis, and he has always inspired me as a painter. Essentially, they all contributed to the reason that I am an artist.
AS: Has your view of art changed since you first saw it being produced by other people to now as you produce it yourself?
MM: Yes, it has. And I say that because I think as a kid, art is so easy. That's why I think Picasso always talks about you having to keep the child in you as an artist. That impetus to create without any restrictions is very freeing. When you become an adult, it's a lot harder for some reason. I think your mind and your thought process actually gets in the way of making work, which can be a good and bad thing. I realize now as an older artist, or you know, thinking about the artists that I admired, and grew up with, it's hard work. It's a difference.
AS: And you weren't always set on being a full time artist, what was your journey towards getting to that point?
MM: I always thought of myself as an artist, even as a kid. The reason is because I saw my mom do it and I saw the possibility that that could be a reality. I think without that, I wouldn't have known that this was a way to pursue or continue life, or that idea that artwork is a possibility for your future. I think what really kind of made me realize this is what I want to be, a full time artist and just to make art, is that as an undergrad I was working on a couple of illustration jobs. For some artists illustration is a bad word, but not necessarily for me. But I eventually realized that I didn't like people telling me what to do. I wanted to ensure that I could make the art that I wanted to make, and do that for the rest of my life. That was the moment.
AS: This is your second residency with an institution. What has it been like seeing students studying art? What do you think is the most important thing for students to focus on in their work at this stage?
MM: I did a residency with Knox College, which is a liberal arts college in Illinois. And then I did a residency with another institution, not a university, but that was with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. And then it was Princeton. So I would say typically, this is my fourth…wow. I like working with educational institutions. The reason is that you get to engage with students. I think what was important for me growing up was to be able to see artists make work. To see what their studios look like and to see how they went from an idea to a finished piece. It’s always interesting to kind of engage with a student body, particularly art history and art students, so that they can see the potential and they can see where they can go. Also, for me it's always interesting to see what they're working on, see what they're studying, and see what young people are thinking. I think that's how you stay young. You’ve got to stay engaged with the young people to understand what's happening within their world. That's also part of the reason why I decided to do the residency here.
AS: Does working in these educational environments inform your practice and potentially change the way you approach your subject matter?
MM: It definitely has. At Princeton I started to approach subjects differently. I was approaching strangers and engaging with them to see what they thought artwork should be or art about them should be. Before then I was concept based. It was my ideas, and people that I knew that were generating the work. The way that I work, especially with institutions, is engaging with the people that are on campus and the work growing out of that.
AS: While here at Duke, what subjects have you wanted to focus on or found yourself focusing on?
MM: I'm always busy. There's always a couple of ideas going on. For the most part, while I'm here, I'm engaging with Duke students and doing portraits of black Duke students. I am trying to figure out ways in which they relax and documenting those moments. I'm also working on things that are scheduled for other museum shows that are technically outside what I'm doing here at Duke. Part of that is preparing a couple of works for a traveling survey show that's going to open up at a museum in Los Angeles.
AS: You've mentioned in interviews your interest in Diego Velazquez and your work being in conversation with contemporary artists Kehinde Wiley alongside other artists working with figurative black subjects. How do you bring in art history and contextualization into your work?
MM: It's always going to be a part of my work. In compositions I am often looking at the past, and what kind of notes and inspiration I can take from that. Then I put it into my work. There's a certain reverence in different paintings that I'm looking at from the past that I want to capture and pull into what I'm doing. At the same time that I am looking at art history, I'm also always looking at what's right in front of me. What's happening in the world and how is that influencing the things that I make?
AS: Do you feel like there's anything now that has been like a certain influence on what you're doing?
MM: Mental health, which is so important for us. Dealing with the anxiety that's coming from this pandemic. How do we rest? How do we relax? How do we exist in the everyday? How do we live…because there's so much death around us. My direction and attention is presently focusing on life. I'm also always thinking about cyclical history, how we keep going back to some of the same things that we haven't dealt with yet. For the two works that I'm doing for my surveys show that that will end up in a museum in California. It's bridging on a concept, an idea that I worked on previously, which focuses on Black and Brown blue collar workers who work at institutions in blue collar jobs like security. I am doing these two new pieces of two security guards that work at this museum.
AS: You did a similar show at Princeton, where your subjects consisted of people on campus that were working in those jobs, which was amazing. On another note, I know this is not your first experience working with Duke. You originally worked with Duke for the portrait of Wilhelmina Ruben-Cooke. What was the process of being selected for that? What about that experience enticed you to come back to the university?
MM: I don't want to say it was random, but it was kind of random. My name got brought up as an artist who’s made work and done portraits for institutions and mayors and things like that. For me, when you're working on a subject who just recently passed away, it's always important to not just go to the archives and find information about this person's life. That is easily accessible. I wanted and thought it was important to talk to the family. I talked to her husband. I spoke with her daughter. From those conversations I started to construct how I wanted the painting to look and what I wanted to paint and talk about. Oftentimes, if you're dealing with a portrait of someone who's passed away, you have to depend on historical references. I couldn't go and take a photo of her myself. I had to compose a lot of different things to make it feel like this person and give a record again of her history. The biggest part of that was talking to her family.
AS: Did you come to Durham when you were painting the portrait to meet members of the family and engage with the university?
MM: I visited Durham to see where the painting would be hung. I also got a little more information about who she was. The actual conversation with her family happened over the phone. But that visit allowed me to see Duke and see what's here. Once I was doing the portrait, then the question became, “Would I like to do a residency here?” That’s how the portrait commission grew into this opportunity.
AS: How do you get to know the subjects you work with in the studio when you're painting them?
MM: I'll give you an example of the Duke students. For the most part my assistants have been helping me get in touch with the students that I've been painting. These are individuals I do not know. I get to know them through the painting process. This is different from what I did at Princeton. For these paintings, I'm painting them in person. While I'm doing that, I am engaging with them in conversation. What are you doing here at Duke? What's your major? How's your experience been here? They're also asking me questions, because to them I'm a stranger right? It’s really important to show empathy in that process so it doesn't feel like an interview or feel like I’m interrogating their life. I never want it to feel that way. That was very important for the work that I did at Princeton. For that, I approached these people as strangers and found time to sit with them to talk before I even started the painting. At Duke, they come in, I talk with them a little bit, then we start the painting. We're still having a conversation the entire time.
AS: Is there anything that we should look out for in terms of upcoming shows? You have the big survey show coming up but are there other things that you're working on that you'd want people to be aware of?
MM: The survey show is going to be at the California African American Museum and opens March 22nd. I’ve got to get these pieces done! That’s going to be a show of my work from the last 10 years. There are catalogs available that you can buy online. I also have another book that's from the show that I did at Princeton. I think the biggest thing other than the survey show, which is really big, is an exhibition that is opening towards the end of the year. It will be back in Detroit. It will include a body of work that considers the borderland of Canada and Detroit and the time period of the Underground Railroad, right before the Underground Railroad. and what led black people to that destination. It was a porous border and black people were able to go back and forth this international border between Canada and Detroit. They lived in a space that allowed them a certain freedom at that moment that wasn't allowed for a lot of people. I am bringing that into a contemporary moment.