Meet Marceline Mason
Melannie Chard
Feb 8, 2026
Photos by CJ Benninger
LUMEN NATURAE
Opens Friday, February 20th | 6 - 8 PM
In anticipation of her first solo exhibition with M Contemporary Art we talk to Marceline Mason about her work, inspiration and reverence for nature.
MARCELINE MASON, Flight, 2025 | Oil on panel, 41 ½ × 72 inches
What is it about nighttime that feels important to you as a place to work from?
“I've always found the night to be incredibly alive. In the dark, the boundary between the external world and our internal psyche becomes thin. It's the setting where the unmapped parts of our mind are most visible. By working from the night, I'm able to move away from literal documentation and into a space where the landscape can become a mirror for memory, solitude, and the unconscious.”
MARCELINE MASON, Temenos, 2025 | Oil on panel, 48 × 36 inches
Lumen Naturae, or the “Light of Nature,” does not mimic the sun. Instead, it emanates from within the landscape itself.
Where does that light come from for you, and what does it allow you to explore?
“The light helps me capture that electric atmosphere of the night. It is rarely external, it doesn't mimic the sun, but instead emanates from within the landscape itself. I think of it as Lumen Naturae, or the 'light of nature.' These verdant glows and elemental flashes represent a brilliance found in both the unconscious mind and in organic matter. In this body of work, it's less about seeing the world and more about feeling the energy that exists beneath the surface.”
Photos by CJ Benninger
How does removing the figure shift the feeling or meaning of the landscape for you?
“When there isn't a person in the frame to anchor the story, the environment itself has to carry all the electric energy and presence. This removal forces the viewer to inhabit the space directly rather than watching someone else do it, creating an environment that is universally accessible. This shift moves the focus from a human narrative to the pulse of the land itself, inviting the viewer to step into that thin space and experience the tension of being both acutely present and untethered from reality.”
(Left) MARCELINE MASON, Queen Anne's Net, 2025 | Oil on panel, 24 × 18 inches
(Right) MARCELINE MASON, Chicory in the Night Rapids, 2025 | Oil on panel, 24 × 18 inches
Do these works start from specific places, or do they come together intuitively?
“The work begins with a meditative intake of my immediate landscape in Detroit, balanced by the memory of immersive sites in Appalachia, such as the Youghiogheny River, which uniquely runs north. These locations provide a foundation, but as I paint, the physical site dissolves into something more intuitive. I treat the flora as ingredients for a visual spell, sometimes subverting their natural logic to capture a specific frequency. For example, while Chicory typically only opens in sunlight, in my piece Chicory in the Night Rapids, it is blooming in the moonlight instead. This shift moves the work into a space of mythic reverence for nature.”
Photos by CJ Benninger
What does water allow you to express that land alone can't?
“Water acts as a conductor for the electric atmosphere I'm looking for. It possesses a reflective tension that land lacks, shifting between a surface to be observed and a depth to be entered. Shorelines and rivers are not merely boundaries; they are the points where the material world begins to dissolve, vibrating between presence and disappearance in a way that allows the viewer to interact with a subconscious space.”
Chicory typically only opens in sunlight, in my piece Chicory in the Night Rapids, it is blooming in the moonlight instead.
MARCELINE MASON, Chicory in the Night Rapids, 2025 | Oil on panel, 24 × 18 inches
When someone lives with one of these paintings, what do you hope it offers them over time?
“I hope the work functions as a threshold rather than a fixed destination. As a site for active inquiry, the painting should offer a space where the viewer's own internal world and the material landscape coexist. Over time, I hope the work provides a sustained sense of reverence through its layers of tone and light, acting as a quiet, electric point of return.”
MARCELINE MASON
Marceline Mason is a Detroit-based painter whose work explores the psychological terrain of nocturnal landscapes, where natural forms become mirrors for inner states of mind. Her recent paintings focus on quiet, uncanny scenes of rivers and night waters, evoking the reflective tension between presence and disappearance. Through layered tone and atmosphere, Mason creates meditative spaces that invite reverence and introspection in response to the shifting natural world.
Mason received her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017 and her BFA from West Virginia University in 2015. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Reyes Finn Gallery, MOCAD, Belle Isle Viewing Room, 333 Midland Annex Gallery, and M Contemporary Gallery. She was a finalist in the Yeck Young Painters Competition and recipient of the Denis Dedirot Artist Residency Grant at Château d'Orquevaux in France.
Her work has been featured in publications such as Painting Since 2000, Detroit Home Magazine, Real Art Detroit, Detroit Metro Times, and Midbrow.