Delmar is the studio practice and moniker for Marcus Clarke, a Tejano-American artist.
Marcus Clarke makes objects and installation environments charged to be sites of self-inquiry. Raised with a physicist for a father, and with a deep curiosity in theology, he has a unique perspective from which to approach the metaphysical and ontological as pathways to embracing the unseen and unknown. Similar to the big Texas sky he was raised under, he describes his work as both pastoral and foreboding. Clarke often deploys ambiguity and cognitive dissonance, where chaos and order are juxtaposed but not ascribed value, and both are treated with reverence and means of catharsis.
Clarke studied Advertising and Architectural History at Pratt Institute and Savannah College of Art and Design–he thinks deeply about media, communication, philosophy, theology, and the built environment. His art career began when moving to Austin in 2019, and since had solo shows Zion’s Window (2020), Two Tides Torn (2020), Sans Land (2021), and 28 Works on Ecclesiastes (2023). He attended a residency at Casa Lu in Mexico City, and has received press from Glasstire and Almost Real Things.
Clarke currently lives in San Antonio and is pursuing his MFA at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He’s also taken some theological coursework at Duke Divinity School as a visiting student. He assists in the studio of the painter Matt Kleberg and is active in education initiatives at the UTSA Southwest School of Art, Old School Makerspace, and Laity Lodge. He is the current artist/curator-in-resident at Vesper Austin, and an ambassador for Ekstasis Magazine.