DEMARCO MOSBY: QUIETLY PERSISTING

OCHI is pleased to present Quietly Persisting, an exhibition of new work by New York-based artist Demarco Mosby. This is the artist's first solo exhibition with the gallery. Quietly Persisting will be on view at OCHI, located at 3305 W Washington Blvd in Los Angeles, California from June 24 through July 29, 2023. An opening reception will take place on Saturday, June 24th from 4:00 to 7:00 PM PST.

Quietly Persisting features a suite of five allegorical paintings by Demarco Mosby that navigate raw human experiences and psychological landscapes saturated with struggle, futility, and disambiguation. Within deforested fields and under crisp blue skies, Mosby paints figures that have every intention of working together towards a common goal nevertheless end up unwittingly working against one another—attributable to a failure of communication. In But what way is right? (2023), several men attempt to move a tree trunk too big to fit onto the canvas.

In the exhibition’s titular work, Quietly Persisting (2023), limbs tangle as figures endeavor to yank a stump from the ground. Though the leaves, branches, and trunk have already been removed and great force is being applied, the stump is immovable—anchored by roots hidden deep underground. In Boots & Bayonets (2023), another stump is stomped and stabbed in an act of collective enforcement as a sand-colored snake escapes through a knot hole. These scenes of perceived violence also celebrate persistence—stumps endure in these moments of grandiose intensity, akin to a turning point in which the mythical protagonist’s metaphorical armor is stripped to reveal true nature.

For Mosby, the studio is a battlefield. Mixing paint and pushing it across a taut surface is admittedly awkward and these acts are often suffused with frustration and desperation. “In painting there are barely any rules at all,” says Mosby, “…problems in the studio can’t be solved with logic.” In Mosby’s Ten of Wands (2023), a solitary figure carries an unwieldy bunch of sticks down a mountain as dusk sets in. Overburdened, our protagonist cannot continue his odyssey unless he can let go. Soothsayer of his own parable, Mosby sits in the studio lost in thought with brush in hand. He puts the brush down and begins the long walk home.