C-lective Curator’s Cut:
Hanging Gardens is a diptych presenting an imagined landscape alive with movement and color. Dominated by layered shades of pink and red, the vertical flow of gestures evokes the cascading energy suggested by the title, while pops of green and blue suggest palms, streams, or water threading through the scene. Up close, the richly textured surface reveals subtle layers with delicate moments of color, like petals and dancing flowers, punctuating the composition. Though abstract, the work feels vividly alive, a dynamic exploration of rhythm, depth, and the quiet poetry of nature imagined through paint, cold wax, and mixed media.
Marvin Perry Mann
Hanging Gardens
oil, cold wax, mixed media on cradled wood panel
Each Panel: 30 x 30 inches
Diptych: 30 x 60 inches
$ 8,000
Marvin Perry Mann
We Love Marvin. He is a Richmond-based artist who is challenging what we know of as the American landscape painting. He creates immersive abstract experiences, tracing a poetic evolution from realism through impressionism, tonalism, and ultimately into abstraction. He’s doing things in his own, innovative way while giving a nod to classical techniques.
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Honorable Mention at the Northern California Arts, Inc. Members Show, Sacramento Fine Arts Center (2025)
Solo show at ar·ti·fact gallery, Point Richmond, CA titled Sketches of Nod: Imagined Landscapes (2024)
Numerous features in publications for his work in comic illustration prior to exploring painting.
“My hope is that the audience will get lost in my paintings and, on reflection, discover something they hadn’t before.”
Marvin’s abstract landscapes draw us in through rich layers of color and texture, revealing subtle terrain and shifting emotional moods. As a self-described colorist, his use of light, shadow, and tone replaces recognizable landmarks with a sense of atmosphere and feeling. His work strikes a balance between detail and openness, creating calm, meditative spaces that invite personal reflection and discovery. These landscapes aren’t depictions of real places, but rather imagined environments formed on canvas or board while Marvin reminisces on his favorite moments in nature. They encourage us to pause and reflect on our own connections to the natural world.
Click here to see Marvin’s most recent C-lective interview.