Marc Mitchell

Rhythm Section

April 29th – June 19th 2021

Tops Gallery is pleased to present Marc Mitchell’s Rhythm Section at the gallery’s Madison Avenue Park location. 

Growing out of his interest in the relationship between optical effects and their function in history, Mitchell’s paintings incorporate dazzle camouflage, modernist abstraction, 60’s Op Art, Memphis design, and errant inkjet impressions to create works that conflate the mechanical and the handmade. 

 In Rhythm Section, Mitchell’s three modular panel paintings are displayed between moiré wallpaper prints on the north and south sides of the gallery. Like stereo speakers these walls blare static from both sides. But they are punctured by the fugitive color and discordant logic in the interlocking forms of the paintings between them.  

 The drumbeat of history has frequently marched into war camouflaged in bold patterns and technological wizardry. But there is another possibility, one that is polyrhythmic, expansive, and filled with love. Mitchell's installation points to that hoped-for future.