This Exhibition Proposal Series show crafted by artist and curator Marcus W. Clarke surveys American Christian subcultures. By recontextualizing popular iconography, Clarke’s mixed media sculptures challenge the contradictions that such subcultures carry, such as violent imagery, Zionist propaganda, far-right sympathies, and more.

Appropriating materials often dismissed as cheap or sentimental—such as glitter, plastic, confetti, and disco balls—Clarke evokes kitsch and Camp, where visual abundance and sincerity blur into one another. Devotional forms are stripped of certainty and reassembled into objects that signal both desire and estrangement.

In contrast to the resolution of devotional art, All Glory, Laud, and Honor questions American Christianity in the 21st century from a post-critical lens. Through layered sensory fields, the works present an unknowing, ripe for theological exploration.

---

About the artist

Marcus W. Clarke Raised under the expansive central Texas sky, Marcus W. Clarke describes his work as both pastoral and foreboding. Growing up with a physicist father, a deep curiosity about theology, and academic training in advertising gives him a unique lens to examine the metaphysical and ontological, embracing the unseen and unknown while interrogating trends and propaganda in visual culture and religion. Thematically, his practice engages with “negative theology,” exploring the unknowability of God and the space left open for theological questioning.

He studied Advertising and Architectural History at Pratt Institute and The Savannah College of Art and Design before beginning his studio practice in Austin, TX. His solo and two-person exhibitions include Zion’s Window (2020), Witnessing Nearness (2024), and his MFA thesis, Feast Day (2025). He was an artist-in-residence at Casa Lu in Mexico City, as well as an artist and curator-in-residence at Vesper Austin. He has received press coverage from Glasstire and Almost Real Things. 

Clarke received his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture and New Media at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2025. He has also pursued theological coursework at Duke Divinity School, and now lives in Worcester, MA, where in addition to his studio practice, he teaches as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Sculpture and 3D Media at College of the Holy Cross. He also enjoys writing and curatorial projects about contemporary art and theology. 

---

Press

For all press inquiries, please reach Communications Director Marianna McMurdock at [email protected]