Mario Moore received a BFA in Illustration from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit (2009) and an MFA in Painting from the Yale School of Art in New Haven (2013). He was awarded the prestigious Princeton Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University and has participated as an artist-in-residence at Knox College, The Fountainhead Residency and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.
In his work, Moore explores the subjectivity of Black men’s lives in the United States, grappling with depictions of the Black male that are rare in art, including experiences of rest and leisure, love and familial relationships. Using oil painting, silver-point drawing and working with non-traditional materials like copper, the artist explores the relationship between art, history, art history and the contemporary experience of the Black male living in America. Moore explores his own experience as the creator of his art, as a subject depicted in some of his work and as a fellow observer. The artist often looks to his own family and friends as he reflects on ideas of self-determination that are intimately connected to shared histories. This identification of the intimate also appears in his compositions, arranging the private and domestic sphere and shared communal spaces as the shared inner-world with a window showing scenes or mere glimpses of a literal (and figurative) outside world.
I always thought of myself as an artist, even as a kid. The reason is because I saw my mom do it and I saw the possibility that that could be a reality. I think without that, I wouldn’t have known that this was a way to pursue or continue life, or that idea that artwork is a possibility for your future.
Mario Moore
