Happy Place

Through sculptural ceramic vessels and installation, Happy Place is Marsha Mack’s constructed version of happiness. Paradise, imagined as an idea, feeling, and a place, is a utopian concept where existence is easy; reality is held safely at bay as pleasure and contentment abound.

At the center of Happy Place are sculptural ceramic and mixed media vessels that act as carriers of narrative. Decorated with imagery taken from the packaging of imported Asian candies including: Strawberry Pocky, White Rabbit Creamy Candy, Botan Rice Candy, and Marukawa gum, a conversation surrounding confections imported from overseas, formation of identity/the self, and the cultural space of the Asian grocery store emerges.

Debuted in the exhibition are custom lenticular wall coverings that feature stock images of jungle waterfalls and cell phone images taken from the Asian Market (San Rafael, CA), a grocery store frequented by Mack and her mother throughout the artist’s childhood. Flickering from one paradise to the next, the images of these disparate scenes become synonymous.

Set before hundreds of winking paradise tiles, candy-colored ceramics installed amidst aquatic plants and bubbling water features, Marsha Mack’s Happy Place offers viewers freedom from woe in sugar coated paradise.

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Artist Bio:

Marsha Mack holds an MFA in Ceramics and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Women's and Gender Studies from Syracuse University, and a BFA in Ceramics from San Francisco State University. Working primarily in ceramic and found objects, Marsha’s artistic practice blurs the line between sculpture and grocery shopping. Her ongoing interest in cultural consumption and the formation of identity serves as wellspring for embellished objects and installations that play to the subconscious, honoring playfulness and introspection as equals. Marsha is the Gallery Manager of Fresh A.I.R. Gallery and SEEN Studios,  an Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at The Ohio State University, and a practicing artist who has presented projects and exhibitions with the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (Denver, CO), Black Cube Nomadic Museum (Englewood, CO), The Galleries of Contemporary Art (Colorado Springs, CO), and Skylab (Columbus, OH), among others.

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‍Public Hours:

Thursdays through Sundays, 12:00pm – 6:00pm, September 2nd – September 23rd, 2023

Opening Celebration: Saturday, September 2nd, 6:00pm  – 9:00pm

Understudy is free-to-visit and open to all. We are located at the Colorado Convention Center / Theatre District light rail stop near 14th and Stout. Look for the Shantell Martin art bench.