MEET M. LAMAR

 

“I am interested in art making as deep spiritual practice, radical gift giving, public offering, extreme personal becomings or transformations and performance practices that are difficult to commodify. I am most interested in practices that are a part of a life long journey or practice of self.”

M. Lamar is a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becoming. Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art, sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar’s work has been presented internationally, most recently at The Rewire Festival in The Hague, Trauma Bar Berlin, Atrium na Žižkově Prague, The Manhattan School of Music, Wellcome Collection London, The Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Funkhaus Berlin Germany, Kunstgebäude Stuttgart, The Meet Factory in Prague, among others.

“Mr. Lamar plumbs the depths of all-American trauma with visionary verve.” —The New York Times

“[H]e deconstructs the persona of the diva even as he wraps himself in divalike hauteur.” —Hilton Als, The New Yorker

“Through his music, he has commented on the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, slave ships, and lynching.” —Vice Magazine

“As though not content with selling his soul to the devil, in the manner of the blues guitarist Robert Johnson, [M. Lamar] is the devil.” —Wall Street Journal

Work

 

mentor profile

Queer|Art|Mentorship will be accepting applications from emerging artists across the country. Are you open to working with someone remotely, or would you prefer they are based in the same city as you?

“I am open to working remotely but would prefer someone local.”

What interests you about mentoring?

“If there is anyway I can be of service I would like to be. My process is very isolating by design. I want to be less isolated and help in some way if I can. So many people have given so much to me along my artistic journey. It's time I do part to pay that forward.”

Given your experience and interests, what kind of emerging artist do you feel best positioned to support?

“I think I can best assist artist who see themselves as outside all markets. If you find all the things one has to do to market ones self or promote yourself disgusting and an a front to your humanity, we will get along. I am very interested in strategies for continuing to be able to make work and survive being a radical outsider who is anti-capitalist. I am interested in art making as deep spiritual practice, radical gift giving, public offering, extreme personal becomings or transformations and performance practices that are difficult to commodify. I am most interested in practices that are a part of a life long journey or practice of self.”

As a mentor, what would you like to offer an emerging artist? What would you like to receive?

“Again I feel I can speak to those whose practice is not immediately legible to an art market or to the public. I would like to spend a lot of time talking about process and how they are going about making their work.”

Have you had mentors of your own? Who have they been?

“I have had voice teaches and artist whom I have studied and looked up to but I have always found my own way for the most part. I am very interested in form and artist thinking of all kinds of ways and places their work and practice can exist inside and outside the art world.”