Marshall Borris (b. 1946, New York, NY)

marshallborris@gmail.com | www.marshallborris.com

This artist's life has been a series of explorations. Life's experiences have brought me to my present area of interest, which is doing portraiture. Portraiture is a most demanding activity of concentration, awareness, self-control, perception, and I find it a great challenge.

People interest me. At 78 years of age I have met many people and developed many observational skills. I am fascinated by the qualities of the human experience and painting a representation of their faces allows me to indulge in such explorations of interest.

In the past, philosophical notions have been a major driving force of my explorations. I still hold onto the validity of such endeavors, but now they seem overshadowed by the quality of life itself.

Historical considerations have always been an important factor in my work. Some of what you will see here was interesting and new at the time it was made. Their historical context is important to their meaning.

What we accept now was once difficult to accept. Things that once seemed shocking and revolutionary have become commonplace and ordinary.

Marshall Borris was born in New York, NY in June, 1946. His father, an immigrant from Germany, who had lived in Cuba, was in international business and interested in the arts, especially music. His mother, a native New Yorker, studied at the Pratt Institute. These childhood influences, both of business and the arts, would form a pattern that would continue in his life. His father, a serious amature pianist, insisted that the study of business was essential to a person’s development.Marshall attended a three-room country schoolhouse in a rural area of Westchester County, NY. His parents had moved from New York City to an agricultural area in 1948. The influences of Marshall’s environment were both urban and rural and the self-reliance and wide range of skills of the local farmers impressed him as a child.

Marshall’s ability to draw was recognized by his parents and he was enrolled in group painting lessons given by an artist in a neighboring town. He did not however start to study art until his second year of college. In September of 1963, at the age of 17, he enrolled in the College of Business Administration at the University of Toledo in Ohio. After a semester and a half of statistics, accounting, and business practice courses, he enrolled in a life drawing class at the Toledo Museum of Art, which was associated with the University. He quickly discovered a great love of this activity.Inspired by farmers’ skills observed in his childhood, Marshall sought to develop these skills for sculpture as well. He taught himself to carve wood and, spurred on by this success, acquired a welders handbook and equipment and learned to make sculpture in the direct metal technique.In the summer of 1964 Marshall’s mother was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer with a prediction of imminent death in months.

Marshall left college to help his parents, first working for his father and then working for a major New York bank. A reprieve came for all with a more positive prognosis for his mother’s survival. She was, after all, only 46.Marshall returned to Toledo in 1965, where Fritz Dreisbach, a teacher of glass blowing, moved in next door. Dreisbach needed an assistant who could weld metal and Marshall found himself with a fellowship in the newly formed glass department and advanced facility at the Toledo Museum of Art, funded by the glass industry in Toledo (see the “Great Glass” article in Look Magazine). This good fortune led to show opportunities and a graduate fellowship with Marvin Lipofsky at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA (1970-72).One of the sculptors who influenced Marshall was Constantin Brancusi and his reductionist approach to sculptural form. Glass as a sculpture medium had the ability to take these forms readily. The medium was also new to university study and generated great excitement around the country. A session at Rhode Island School of Design with Dale Chihuly soon followed as did the first summer at the Pilchuck Glass workshop.

A two-week visit to the Venini Glass Factory in Murano, Italy illustrated the great skill in Venice as well as some of the limitations of the medium. It was easy to become a prisoner of glass. Marshall’s courses at CCAC also included philosophy of art, of past and present times. Greatly affected by Jack Burnham’s book, “The Structure of Art”, Marshall pursued the study of Structuralism and the writings of the French Phenomenologists. The MFA requirements at CCAC for the category “Sculpture-Glass” required Marshall to use glass even though his notions had completely changed, hence a final show of balance pieces using glass. This was to be his last endeavor with the medium.Liberated from working with one material the world suddenly lay wide open once again, resulting in shows at the New Museum in Oakland, CA and new associations, which led Marshall to find employment in Berkeley, CA with Peter Voulkos. Permanent teaching employment was difficult to find in the Bay Area. Marshall did a very short guest lectureship at Mills College, and with a fellow CCAC graduate and the help of Peter Voulkos, he started a bronze casting foundry. This was strictly for making a living. This endeavor continued until Marshall obtained a one-year appointment to the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. While at the University, Marshall showed at the Washington Project for the Arts and the University.After the year was over, Marshall moved to New York City. Being summoned back to the Bay Area for the Introductions 1976 Show, Marshall met his wife Suzanne. Suzanne was a working potter in the Voulkos studio. The following year they moved in together in lower Manhattan where they ran a pottery studio and built the largest gas kiln in Manhattan in the style of Voulkos. While living in Manhattan Marshall was actively showing his work in Washington D.C., Connecticut, and Philadelphia. He also taught at the Parsons School of Design and the Stamford Museum. In May of 1978

Marshall and Suzanne were married and had a collaborative show in SoHo the same year. In 1981 they had a daughter, Sarah, and moved to the scenic Hudson Valley, an area much more conducive to raising a child. Living in the country Marshall turned his focus away from art, but continued to use the wide range of farmers’ skills that impressed him as a child, this time focused on making a new life in the country. He also drew on his business skills, eventually becoming a financial consultant. Finally, in 2010, Marshall returned to his love of the activity of making art and began taking lessons in portraiture with Lois Woolley in Woodstock, NY.Today Marshall has found a whole new world to explore within the realm of painting.

Education

2010-12 Private study with Lois Woolley, Woodstock, NY
1972 Master of Fine Arts, California College of Arts and Crafts
1971 Advanced Study, Rhode Island School of Design Department of Glass and Ceramics, Providence, Rhode Island
1970 Bachelor of Arts, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio

Solo Exhibitions

2014 The Storefront Gallery, Kingston, NY
1982 B.R. Kornblatt Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1982 Surroundings SoHo, New York, NY
1981 One year installation at Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C.
1981 Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
1980 B.R. Kornblatt Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1980 Works Gallery, South Hampton, New York
1978 Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut
1977 Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
1976 Introductions ‘76, San Francisco Art Dealers' Association, California
1975 Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.
1972 New Museum of Modern Art, Oakland, California
1972 Isabell Percy West Gallery, Oakland, California

Group Exhibitions

2014 Group Show, Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY
2014 Group Show, Can Serrat Program, Barcelona, Spain
2013 Student Show, Woodstock School or Art, Woodstock, New York
2011 Student Show, Woodstock School or Art, Woodstock, New York
1983 Faculty Show, Parsons School of Design, New York, New York
1982 Lillian Kornbluth Gallery, Fairlawn, New Jersey
1981 “Sculpture 81”, Franklin Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1981 Kiva Gallery, Scarsdale, New York
1980 Marietta National, Marietta, Ohio
1980 B.R. Kornblatt Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1980 Renneth Gallery, Westhampton, New York
1980 O.I.A. Sculpture Show, Wards Island, New York
1980 Faculty Show, Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut
1980 Greenwich Academy Installation, Greenwich, Connecticut
1979 O.I.A. Sculpture Show, Wards Island, New York
1979 Landmark Square Installation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1978 Stamford Museum Outdoor Installation, Stamford, Connecticut
1978 Dorfman Gallery, New York, New York
1978 Harold Reed Gallery, New York, New York
1977 Faculty Show, Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut
1976 Preliminaries Show, Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut
1975 Faculty Show, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
1975 Maryland Arts Council Works on Paper Show, Annapolis, Maryland
1972 C.C.A.C Library of Art, Oakland California
1972 Hayward Festival of the Arts, Hayward, California
1972 Exhibit 3, San Francisco, California
1972 California-Hawaii Regional, San Diego, California
1972 Media ‘72, Walnut Creek, California
1971 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
1971 Northwest Craft Center, Seattle, Washington
1971 Friends or the Crafts, Seattle, Washington
1971 Igor Mead Gallery, San Francisco, California
1971 Arts and Crafts Cooperative, Berkeley, California
1971 Todos Santos Festival of the Arts, Concord,California
1970 Art Park, Athens, Ohio
1969 Columbus Hospital Collection, New York, New York
1969 America House, New York, New York
1969 Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio


Awards

2014 Artist in Residence, Can Serrat, Barcelona, Spain
1981 Hirschorn Selection for the benefit of the Corcoran School of Art
1976 San Francisco Art Dealers Association, San Francisco, California
1972 Hayward Festival of the Arts, First Place Sculpture, Hayward, California, James Melchert, juror
1969 Toledo Museum of Art, First Place Sculpture, Toledo, Ohio


Reviews/Articles

2014 Roll Magazine, July, 2014
2014 Review, Kingston Times, July 17, 2014
2014 Kingston Daily Freeman, July 3, 2014
2014 Interview, Poughkeepsie Journal, July 3, 2014
1982 Art in America 1982 Annual
1980 Forecast Magazine, October, 1980
1978 New York Post, June 17, 1978
1970 John Peter: “Great Glass”, Look Magazine, September 8, 1970, p. 22-25


Selected Public Collections

Museum of American Crafts, New York, New York
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio


Experience

1983 Co-Director Parsons School of Design Summer Program, Lake Placid, New York
1983 Instructor of Ceramics, Parsons School of Design, New York, New York
1982-83 Manager of Studio Facilities, Parson School of Design, New York
1976-80 Instructor of Sculpture and Drawing, Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut
1975-76 Lecturer in Sculpture, Drawing, and Design, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
1974 Guest Lecturer, Graduate Art Seminar, Mills College, Oakland, California
1973-75 Assistant to Peter Voulkos, Berkeley, California
1973-74 Operation of bronze casting foundry, Oakland, California
1973 Pattern Makers License, City of Oakland, California
1972 Assistant Lecturer, Philosophy of Art, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California
1971-72 Operation of a production glass studio "Bread & Butter Glassworks", Oakland, California
1971 Teaching Assistant for Dale Chihuly, First Pilchuck Glass Workshop, Stanwood, Washington
1970-71 Teaching Assistant for Marvin Lipofsky, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland California
1969-70 Teaching Assistant for Fritz Dreisbach, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
1967-68 Arts and Craft Instructor, Frederick Douglass Community Center, City of Toledo, Ohio