Mike Marino

Born in 1980, Mike Marino was a member of the Chicago Studio from 2006 until his unexpected passing in 2018. In addition to an ongoing dedication to developing his creative practice, he was also integral to community building in the studio; he formed close friendships with many fellow artists, especially David Krueger and Jean Wilson, who had an influence on his work. Myriad interests and subjects informed his paintings and drawings, including pop culture references, memory, and imagination. Whether mining content from TV shows, movies, professional wrestling, comics, or his personal history, Marino gleaned information from these diverse sources, then crafted exuberant and intricate stories in response. One can see in his work an eclectic mix of the mundane and the fantastic, as places and people from his everyday life are featured alongside iconic superheroes and celebrities. Layers of text, symbols, figures of varying sizes, as well as visible cover-ups and corrections give the sense of looking at a graffiti-covered wall. Rather than aspiring to capture one moment in time, he instead portrayed numerous events occurring simultaneously. Marino worked with various media – acrylic, paint pens, and markers (with a strong preference for sharpies) – and also frequently compiled drawings in sketchbooks. 

Marino’s work has been included in Hand Drawn Circle at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Dance, Dance, Dance guest curated by Tyson Reeder, and the Buddy shop at the Chicago Cultural Center, among others. As a member of the Arts of Life Band Marino contributed songs like Happy and Proud and Brookfield Rap, and can be heard on the 2017 album Kinda Weirdy.