Isis Davis-Marks uses both images and written language to tell stories, explore the nature of time, and investigate the limitations of language. Her work moves through race, femininity, education, and class — and then outward, toward more universal terrain: love, ancestry, the natural world. Plants and artifacts appear often. So does the question of what gets valued and what gets overlooked.

Her process is research-driven and scientific in its rigor. She draws on impressionist and pointillist painters — Van Gogh, Seurat — applying color theory and optical color mixing to create the illusion of shade and light using embroidery thread, fabric, and paint. The result pushes the boundaries of what a painting can be.

Fiber is central to her practice, and its significance is both cultural and personal. Textiles carry histories from across the world, and Davis-Marks learned to dye cloth, crochet, knit, and sew from her great aunt as a child. That inheritance runs through her work. Cloth is associated with domesticity and femininity — categories often dismissed or undervalued in fine art and academic spaces. She takes that dismissal as a provocation, pulling techniques from beyond Europe and using them to craft intricate narratives about personal histories that reach into the political.