MARISA STRATTON

Marisa Stratton is a painter whose work explores contemporary portraiture in the context of screens. Marisa holds a BFA in Communication Arts with a minor in Painting + Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has shown in multiple group exhibitions including Virginia MoCA, (Virginia Beach, VA), Hamiltonian Artists (DC) and the Delaware Contemporary (Wilmington, DE). Stratton has been featured in New American Paintings and currently teaches painting at Georgetown University.

"My painting practice approaches the internet in a way that is whimsical, infatuated with the potential physicality of an immaterial (but ever-present) structure in my life. My practice is centered around portraiture, digital self-presentation, what it means to view and be viewed through an interface. Each painting or painting collection-object is sourced from screenshots captured on web conferences or social media sites. Although these moments seem inconsequential, the digital infrastructures and interfaces that contain them continue to create a collective history of the present that is exponential in growth and cultural importance. The screenshot (often thought as disposable) becomes an artifact of movement through a digital interface that dictates experience. How do digital moments accumulate? Where do digital images go after being passed over? When I paint these moments, I interpret them in the context of traditional oil painting as a medium of formal portraiture and historical documentation. Thick paint application and slight abstraction are essential to these paintings as I am translating slick 2-D photos into expressive polyptychs with unique textures and imperfections that invite the viewer to touch. Much like the digital interfaces that continually beg for our constant attention and activation."