Gino Markocs (b. New York, NY 1996) is a painter and mixed media artist who creates his own mythologies based on images of cave painting, shamanist ritualistic practices, and the belief of animism. Inspiration taken from mythologies and ancient cultures is used to create an interdisciplinary practice that employs the artist as channeler of dreams. The importance of the emotional and spiritual state influences the process of mark making.
Markocs believes modern humans have abandoned their memory of being animals and a part of the natural balance; constantly putting on masks to repress natural instincts and intuitions. His own personal intent isn't important, the spirit of work will always have its own independent life and motives. The mask is the human face, and what is under is the eternal animal. Lucid landscapes of figures that are morphing into animals are depictions of feelings and senses of the unseeable. The animal is a sign of weakness, rage, vulnerability etc. and all emotions that we do not so readily want to identify with. When you take off your mask, you become what you are. There is no judgement on what is felt, only on the genuinity.
To take the face off of the animal is to become the spirit. Markocs works in series, constantly going back and forth between painting, printmaking and drawing. Automatic drawing acts as the vehicle to inhibition.The space in its entirety is an ongoing index of ritual, creation, and an exploration of the senses and inhibition. Blood red lighting is obscured with a fog of incense and low tribal drumming. Translucent swathes of cloth drape across the room with bells weighing them down. These portals act as liminalities, simultaneously overwhelming and sobering the senses. Drawing from the stories of The Iliad and The Lotus Eaters, the viewer is offered a glass of aphrodisiac Mezcal with a lotus flower in it. The hope is that the viewer enters with a mask that is their face, but exits with a mask that is their spirit.
Bio.
Markocs has recently graduated with a full tuition scholarship from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art with a BFA in 2018. He has then continued his practice at MANA Contemporary in Jersey City. Markocs being an alumni of the Jersey City Arts High School program, has taught printmaking workshops and given college portfolio preparation to its current students. He has spent the summer of 2018 in MANA under The Eileen Kaminsky Family Foundation, as an educational mentor for SOL.STUDIOS. Followed by his mentorship, he then went on to become a fall resident under ESKFF. He is now a full time artist in residence at the MANA BSMT. Markocs has shown work at 107 Bowers Gallery and Art Space under Kristen Deangelis and LITM lounge and art space. His work is a part of the ESKFF permanent collection and has recently been bought by collector Diana Sutherlin of the Sutherlin Realty Group.