“My work is designed to activate the viewer’s cognitive mechanics, eliciting various meanings from the viewer’s own history, identity and belief systems.” - Marcus John Guillory
Houston, TX – ART IS BOND is proud to present “(not) SOFT SPOKEN,” a solo exhibition of new text-based works by multidisciplinary artist Marcus John Guillory. The exhibition opens Friday, July 11, 2025, with a public reception from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, and will remain on view through August 30.
With a background in screenwriting, performance, and philosophy, Guillory’s visual language fuses narrative precision with material rawness. In “(not) SOFT SPOKEN,” he examines the political and spiritual stakes of voice—whose voices are heard, silenced, exalted, or ignored.
Guillory’s stenciled typographic works function as both visual statements and psychological provocations. Each piece embodies protest, prayer, revelation, or remembrance. Informed by the study of pragmatics—the relationship between language and its social function—his compositions push beyond legibility into embodiment, inviting viewers to feel the text as much as read it.
“My work is designed to activate the viewer’s cognitive mechanics, eliciting various meanings from the viewer’s own history, identity and belief systems.”
Presented with restraint and conviction, the works speak for the unwelcomed, the unheard, and the unclaimed—affirming dignity through form and defiance through design. This is not a quiet exhibition. It is a resounding call.
And if you are reading this, you are already part of that resistance.
About the Artist
Marcus John Guillory is a Houston-born, Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural theorist. Known for his unique synthesis of Black mysticism, Southern vernacular, and spiritual symbolism, Guillory’s work spans sculpture, text, installation, and performance. His art is deeply rooted in memory, ancestral knowledge, and the metaphysical. With formal training in philosophy and theology, his creative voice echoes across mediums—from the screen to the gallery wall.
Guillory’s visual practice reflects a deep engagement with storytelling as both ritual and resistance. His objects—whether made of discarded signage, handwritten notes, or sacred cloth—carry psychic weight. Through them, he creates spaces for healing, remembrance, and radical presence.
He currently maintains a studio practice in Los Angeles while remaining connected to his Southern roots through community-based art and cultural activation.