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Louis Buhl & Co. is pleased to present our first edition with Detroit-based artist Mario Moore, titled Distant Relatives, releasing this Thursday, June 17th at 12 pm EST on our website. Moore’s works are rooted in historical references that draw parallels between the social, economic, and racial occurrences of the present. Based in figurative realism, his large scale paintings tell stories of his own life along with those of friends and family. The figures in Moore’s creations are powerful and resilient as demonstrated through the control of their gaze — a range of emotions are depicted throughout the various subjects in his work, however, the unflinching and direct stares each one holds is a consistent characteristic that has been established within Moore’s practice. 

Using people close to him as models for his work, Moore aims to represent the many faces of humanity and, in particular, issues that directly affect himself and his community. Complete with rich blue tones set on a solid gold background, Distant Relatives illustrates a self portrait of Moore positioned next to his 3rd great Uncle Thomas. Intimate and stirring, the edition tells a story about the Black community’s deep-seated and continual fight for freedom and equality. 

“This work is about the revelation of finding out that my 3rd great Uncle (Thomas Moore) fought in the Civil War. It is about the conditions of that time politically and systematically that led to the country's change and how we are today facing a new kind of abrupt change with political and racial turmoil. Two individuals roughly 200 years apart who [both] faced polemic moments in US history.” — Mario Moore