| The paintings of Kendrick Mar convey childhood emotions and an off-balance sense of nostalgia. His sparse compositions are occupied by lonely doll-like figures rendered on colorful and thickly textured surfaces. Images are pared down and reduced to their most essential components, imparting them with iconographic immediacy. The roughly formed figures register as vaguely familiar cartoon characters and dolls that are revisited through the haze of the unconscious. The figures are caricatured self-portraits of the artist, manifestations of his psychological states and alter egos. | 
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The paintings of Kendrick Mar convey childhood emotions and an off-balance sense of nostalgia. His sparse compositions are occupied by lonely doll-like figures rendered on colorful and thickly textured surfaces. Images are pared down and reduced to their most essential components, imparting them with iconographic immediacy. The roughly formed figures register as vaguely familiar cartoon characters and dolls that are revisited through the haze of the unconscious. The figures are caricatured self-portraits of the artist, manifestations of his psychological states and alter egos. These psychological stand-ins are elucidated so that the subconscious can recognize forms but not place them within a specific context. The paintings are wrought with awkward charm and an unabashed embrace of the artist’s struggle with the medium.
The initial intent of the sweet and colorful iconography is to draw the viewer in and seduce the eye. Closer examination of the work reveals a dark undercurrent. The visual tension created by sending mixed signals is a key element of the paintings, as they balance pleasure with emotional dissonance. The nostalgia and sweetness associated with childhood is anchored to pain and despair. By exploring the feelings and associations of childhood, the paintings create an atmosphere of emotional resonance. The issues of identity, being adopted and family dysfunction play heavily into the artist’s subject matter.
In Pain Receptors (2006), a lone, armless doll figure sits helplessly in an empty psychological space. The smooth neutrality of the negative space around the figure is mottled with red abrasions and cuts. In Pain Receptors II (2006), psychological states are embodied by two white doll figures that occupy the foreground—one is clown-nosed and eyeless while the other has two empty red sockets on its featureless face. In the bright orange field surrounding the central composition, several small blue figures sit in profile. In Crow (2006), the death symbol aggressive cuts the fleshy negative space of the background where a tiny figure in red punctuates a green color field.The artist’s ideas are found through a long sifting and refining of sketches and visual motifs. Utilization of childlike imagery frees him to depict figures without referencing the grand tradition of figurative painting. Virtuosity is subordinate to expressive mark-making and symbolic impact. The images are left raw, so they may operate as emotional Rorschach tests, accessing memory triggers and the feelings of childhood.
The artist was born in 1969 in Oakland, CA and discovered his interest in art as a college student. He later pursued his art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his BFA degree in 2000. He lives and works in New York City.
