Positive and Negative Space, Marlena Wild

Artist: Marlena Wild

Title: Positive and Negative Space

Medium: Mixed media, acrylic, vinyl print on wood

Dimensions: 25 x 25 inches

Price: $2500

Artist Statement: Positive and Negative Space explores the tension between presence and absence through the lens of historical memory and lived experience. Inspired by the infamous diagrams of slave ship layouts, the diptych reimagines the bodies as shapes—first rendered in black against white, then reversed—challenging the viewer’s instinct to identify which side is “positive.” The work plays with formal art principles—composition, contrast, repetition—but beneath the surface is a meditation on dehumanization and perception. In one panel, the bodies are the figure; in the other, the empty space between them takes center stage. Both are evidence. Both hold weight. As a Black woman raised within predominantly white religious culture, I know what it feels like to be marked and unseen at once. This piece becomes both a visual archive and a personal reckoning. It asks the viewer to confront what has been erased, and to consider how absence can carry just as much power, presence, and violence as what is visible.

Artist Bio: I create layered works based on my perspective of all that is, portrayed both physically and metaphorically to convey a poignant message that can be understood in stages by all. To show that all is a part of the whole—some parts known and others unknown. Neither is one without the other, for negative space is necessary to define any picture.

I explore the concepts of light and dark, black and white in regard to race, religion, and gender, through several different perspectives, mediums, and dimensions, and address how our opinions and understandings of duality shape our worlds while also giving a voice to my past, present, and future views.