Local artist Jonathan Marc Wille, know by the artist name JONNMARC, is scheduled to present his next exhibition at the Washington D.C. LGBT community center at the end of May. This marks an exciting beginning to his professional artistic career, one that has taken years of encouragement form his friends to get off the ground. He says he is very excited to be working with the LGBT center, becoming more involved in his community has been a goal for him over the past year. It began with his involve...
Local artist Jonathan Marc Wille, know by the artist name JONNMARC, is scheduled to present his next exhibition at the Washington D.C. LGBT community center at the end of May. This marks an exciting beginning to his professional artistic career, one that has taken years of encouragement form his friends to get off the ground. He says he is very excited to be working with the LGBT center, becoming more involved in his community has been a goal for him over the past year. It began with his involvement with the organization Capital Pride, where he designed and directed the construction of the 2014 Capital Pride Volunteer parade float, and he is happy to say he is doing it again this years 40th Pride. It continued when he met David Mariner, the Executive Director of the DC Center, at his previous exhibition, Bachanalia: the Grocery Store Klonopin Series, held at the Stages Realty Office on 14th street earlier this year. "David came to my exhibition in spring, and mentioned how I needed to come have a show at the Center, and now several months later here we are. Hopefully there will be many more exhibitions to come."
This exhibition is titled Square, and are large canvasses covered in multicolored squares, with human figures hiding in the sea of color and undulating patterns. "It is a place of comfort to be able to see repetition and to paint repeating patterns. The simplicity of creating structure with a network of single brush strokes is mesmerizing while I am working. I sink into the obsession of covering the surface with color."
It is titled Square because of the obvious shapes present in the paintings, but also undertones of identity emerge with the non-gendered forms in his paintings. The exhibition will be on May 30th from 6-9pm at the DC Center, 2000 14th street NW #105 Washigton, D.C. 20002, admission is free. The show will be on display for the month of June. Originally from Wisconsin, he moved to Baltimore to attend the Maryland Institute College of art. Since then he has work as a special event decor artist for companies in DC and Maryland, but has always dreamed of being an independent full-time artist.
"All the support from my friends and also my community has made the beginning of this journey possible. It took me so long with so many detours through odd jobs to really be able to find the courage to take the leap. It's a matter of commitment to be able to follow your heart and I'm just stubborn enough to not give up."
