11/2/2020 – 12/28/2020
Donned in discerning patterns, eye-catching colors, and notable designers, people serpentine the coiling streets of cities, challenging the status quo with their innovative styles. The impermanence and ever-changing nature of these concrete habitats offer unending sources of inspiration for Marisa Rheem. Working at an art gallery in downtown San Francisco, Marisa is constantly flooded with inspiration from the street fashion she observes. She views the limitless combinations of colors, texts, and patterns in streetwear as impermanent works of art that are thoughtfully created by the wearer. She captures snapshots of impermanent outfits on the streets and transforms them into permanent archival works of art destined for galleries.
Painting all of these lively combinations keeps her excited to go to the studio day after day. Using acrylic and a slow-dry blending medium, Marisa delicately applies thin layers of paint to create rich, complex, and vivid colors. Through building these layers, Marisa summons illustrious fragments of the human figure clothed in streetwear.
Marisa Rheem was born in 1989 in Washington D.C., USA. She currently lives in the Bay Area and works as an art consultant in the Financial District of San Francisco. She received her BFA in Studio Art in 2014 from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. Marisa has received awards for her artwork, and has had her artwork displayed in multiple juried group shows, as well as in public and private collections. In November 2019, Marisa debuted her series “Impermanent Fascination,” her first solo exhibition which premiered in Oakland. Her works are exhibited at the De Young Museum from October-December 2020 in a juried group show titled, “De Young Open Exhibit”.
