About
M. John-Marc Purvis (they/them) is a Chicago native, artist and educator who primarily works in image based media and installation that uses concepts driven from mental illness and perceptual psychology to produce paintings that both question and portray the myriad of depictions and visual stimuli brought on by it. Embracing vulnerability and discussing the stigmas surrounding revealing one's mental health to others is a prime point of their most recent work. Though overall they investigate mental health's affect on perception, and the senses through landscapes done primarily in oil. This is done with the hope of not only challenging what we consider to be a normal (neurotypical) view of nature of and life; by doing so they seek to invite others to empathize with a perspective that is not their own.
Having matriculated in 2016 at University of Illinois Champaign Urbana (UIUC) they studied both Painting and New Media attaining both degrees with a minor in Art History. During their time at UIUC they studied both under a French school of painting at IAU: France (Institut Américain Universitaire) and the psychology department studying perceptual psychology. They later finished their studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in May of 2021.
M. has exhibited at Baby Blue Gallery (Chicago, IL, Richard Wright Gallery at Cook Lake College, St. Louis Artist’s Guild, Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Philadelphia, PA), Special Features (Chicago, IL) and Basketshop Gallery (Cincinnati, OH). They have been awarded residencies with full fellowships to both Ox-Bow (2021) and Skowhegan (2022), Chicago’s Intuit Institute of Outsider Art as an Emerging Museum Professional (2022), Virginia Creative Center for the Arts 2023.