Seek us, where we sin
Marvin Touré

Opening Oct. 17th 6-8pm
through Nov. 15th

haul gallery is pleased to present Seek us, where we sin, an installation by Pittsburgh-based artist Marvin Touré (b.1991). This new offering is Touré’s third solo project with the gallery, the first being Paranoia’s Midnight in 2019. Touré’s exhibition positions oppressive Western systems as an American religion and his works as spiritual contraband. From Civil War battle flag imagery to illustrations of his warrior ancestor, Touré examines “sin” as resistance, self-acceptance, and self-actualization. He writes:

The wood, the cement, the sand,
The gravel, then cocoa powder, then connect with screws
The cocoa oil, the dirt, then paint with dirt
The paint, reclaim furniture, then make altars
temples human scale, battle flag bowls,
the armory, the storage, the archive
unpack, unpack, unpack.

Seek us, where we sin is an installation that stages recycled furniture, found objects, and cast cement as stored sacred objects.

Furniture shifts from cabinets, drawers, and chairs to altars, masks, and fetish objects. This environment invites viewers to contemplate everyday repositories for ritual. The urgency of uncovering meets the need to protect and store.

The title “Seek us, where we sin” was inspired by a passage in the “Weekly Almanac” of the November 4th, 1954 issue of JET magazine. The “prayer of the week” read: “In Liberia, an error was discovered in the translation of one phrase of the Lord’s Prayer. The quotation: “Lead us not into temptation.” The Liberian version: “Do not catch us when we sin.” In America’s 250th year, if piety is based on a social rubric rooted in a white supremacist spirituality, what is transgression? To sin, in this context, is a reclamation of what was, an embodiment of the expansive self, and an embrace of a time beyond these structures. This installation reframes reclaimed furniture and histories as daily violations of this system. To the enemies of our common humanity and to those who wish to know our truth, seek us not in compliance; seek us where we sin.

Marvin Touré (b.1991) is an Ivorian-American artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice is guided by familial and cultural storytelling. Rooted in the mythologies of West Africa and the American South, his work employs material exploration to engage speculative histories and stories weathered by time. In 2014 he received a B.A. in New Media Arts with a minor in Architecture from Southern Polytechnic State University (now Kennesaw State University) in Marietta, Georgia. In 2016 he received an M.F.A. in Fine Arts from The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Marvin has also completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Franconia Sculpture Park as a Jerome Foundation Fellow, Governors Island via the School of Visual Arts, 1Hood Media’s Artivist Academy, and was named the inaugural artist-in-residence of Alma | Lewis. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at Jan Brandt Gallery(Bloomington, IL), Bridget Donahue Gallery(New York, NY), Material Art Fair(Mexico City), PRIZM Art Fair(Miami FL) The Hole(New York, NY) Project for Empty Space(Newark, NJ) Smack Mellon(Brooklyn, NY) The University of Connecticut-Stamford, Penn State, Eastern Connecticut State University, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center(Pittsburgh, PA) The AC Institute(New York, NY), haul gallery(Brooklyn, NY) and The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, PA. Since 2018, Toure has received commissions for four public works at the Franconia Sculpture Park and the I-Park Foundation. He was awarded one of I-Park’s two 20th anniversary commissions for the Site Responsive Art Biennale(East Haddam, CT). Touré has received awards from the Black Artist Fund Grant, the Peter S. Reed Foundation for Mixed Media/Sculpture, The Heinz Endowments Creative Development Award, Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh via the Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Frank-Ratchye Further Fund from Carnegie Mellon’s Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry. In addition to his studio practice, Touré has conducted community workshops, youth programming, and held teaching positions in Advanced Sculpture and Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, respectively.