Monya Rowe Gallery is happy to announce the second New York solo exhibition by Memphis-based artist Rahn Marion titled The place Spirit Meets Bone. The title of the exhibition, The place Spirit Meets Bone, is borrowed from a music by Southern singer Lucinda Williams (1953-). The phrase is a metaphor for the intersection the place the bodily physique and the non secular self join, in essence ones’ true self.
Marion was raised in Mississippi and Tennessee, and nonetheless lives within the American South. His work infuse his personal lived experiences with inspiration from the wealthy tapestries of Southern folktales, theological narratives and the colourful power of the Harlem Renaissance to forge a novel modern dialogue. The imagery within the exhibition ranges from jesters, memento mori and dancing skeletons to males with butterfly wings and ruffs. Marion’s flamboyant sartorial decisions, partly influenced by the Medieval interval, embrace queer id and contemplate how garments, or “costumes”, contribute to every day efficiency. The artist quotes RuPaul: “We’re all born bare, and the remainder is drag”.
In Drunk In Jest (2025) a reclining man in a skirt echoes Egon Schiele’s (1890-1918) well-known portray from 1911. In Fishermen (2025), Marion subverts the frequent artwork historical past trope of society portraits highlighting white rich males in looking poses. Right here, a nude African American male with an exaggerated 90’s hi-top fade, which additionally symbolizes an Egyptian headdress, proudly exhibits off his toned physique and a set of pastel coloured fish presumably from a profitable fishing journey. A close-by chicken symbolizes spirit, regeneration and new alternatives. Seen by way of a queer Southern perspective, the artists’ many influences vary from the center ages to William Blake (1757-1827) to modern tradition. Marion’s work oscillate between honest and playful, romantic and otherworldly whereas using a disparate vary of iconography to discover id, spirituality and existence.
