Concurrent with Maiden Voyage, Marcus Brutus’s solo exhibition at Harper’s Chelsea 512, Harper’s is proud to present Return to the Source, a presentation of paintings, works on paper, and books curated by the artist at Harper’s Chelsea 534. The book display highlights Brutus’s inspirations drawn from art, music, film, and literature, while simultaneously nodding to the Harper’s legacy as a rare book dealer. An array of publications spanning art monographs and catalogues, photobooks, literature, and more are featured at the pop-up bookshop: from Toni Morrison’s Sula, to a book of interviews with Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, to Brutus’s own exhibition catalogue, The Uhmericans, published by the gallery in 2019.
Marcus Brutus (b. 1991, Silver Spring, MD) is a self-taught, New York City–based artist who holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John’s University, Queens. Most recently, his work has been the subject of solo exhibitions: Good Night Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning, Library Street Collective, Detroit (2020); Marcus Brutus: The Truth That Never Hurts, Harper's, East Hampton (2020); and Go To Work. Get Your Money and Come Home. You Don’t Live There, Harper’s, East Hampton (2019). Brutus was included in the 2019 group presentation American African American, curated by Arnold Lehman, at Phillips, New York, as well as group shows at König Galerie, Berlin (2021); Arsenal Contemporary, New York (2021); Carl Kostyál, Stockholm (2021); Gana Art, Seoul (2021); and Harper’s, Los Angeles and East Hampton (2021 and 2020). His work has been acquired by the Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA. Brutus’s painting Bus Stop appears on the cover of the anthology The Movement for Black Lives: Philosophical Perspectives, published in September 2021 by Oxford University Press. In 2021, Brutus collaborated with streetwear brand Kith to reimagine its logo. His first monograph, Marcus Brutus: The Uhmericans, which features an essay by Gagosian director and curator Antwaun Sargent, was published by Harper’s in 2019.