Crystal Marshall’s Multidimensional Storytelling

BLACKBODY - THE WEEPING ROSES, 2025, Oil on paper, 30 × 46 in

By CARLOTA GAMBOA July 23, 2025

Born in Long Island, New York, and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Crystal Marshall is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice defies the traditional confines of medium and embraces an expansive, deeply intuitive approach to storytelling. Trained first through public-facing and site-specific work in Kingston, her early relationship with art was shaped by unconventional materiality and art-making that privileged resourcefulness over rigid academic standards. From those formative beginnings, her work has evolved into a rich dialogue between painting, sculpture, photography, and video—each medium offering a new perspective into a personal yet universal exploration of narrative, identity and perception via her long-form project series.

“I started with painting,” Marshall explains, “and that has always remained the core of my work.” Initially working on raw canvas or paper using acrylics, she later transitioned to oil on paper, a medium she continues to prefer for its intimacy and tactile sensitivity. Marshall’s early work was figurative and narrative-driven, a visual meditation on her life and experiences as a black woman in the United States, both participant and observer, often informed by her position as an outsider. Over time, her work began to take on additional facets, branching out into alternative mediums that, though investigating similar subjects and themes, take on new bodies while doing so.

FEET OF ORE, CELESTIAL FIRE ON THE SEA OF GLASS, 2022, Oil on Paper, 38 x 52 in

Her sculptural practice is the most recent iteration of her evolving artistic voice, utilizing materials like soap, glitter, foam, and even discarded hardware from her day job in engineering. “I started using soap because I have a natural skincare line, and I knew the material well,” she shares. “It’s malleable, familiar, and easy to shape, and so I thought why not bring it into my art?” Like this, Marshall transforms everyday objects into the more expansive filaments of her practice, turning different mediums, forms, and materials into metaphors that further inform other pieces in a series.

This sense of material play has also recently extended into the realm of 3D printing. With excitement, she speaks about experiments which have allowed her to create delicate, web-like sculptural forms that evoke transparency, tactility and transition: “I would say what most of the materials that I tap into have in common is having a sense of transparency and clarity, like you're able to see through it. I'm attracted to the materials that way. I like this idea of being able to look beyond the surface and to see inside of things. So you're just not looking at an opaque, solid surface. It’s almost like an unveiling, so to speak.”

COLONIAL GARDEN - WHAT WAS, IS AND IS TO COME, 2022, Oil on Paper, 33.5 X 54 in

Throughout her practice, the interrelation between media is central. Paintings inspire sculptures, photographs inform videos, and, at times, sculptures feedback into her paintings. While painting remains her primary vehicle, her engagement with other mediums allows for a fuller, more nuanced exploration of her ideas. “When I’m working with photography or video, there’s a sense of immediacy that’s different from painting. I’m not agonizing over every detail; the details are already there. It’s about shifting perception.” Conversely, sculpture demands a different kind of presence: “You have to consider everything, every angle. It’s a 360-degree experience.”

Her process is also largely intuitive. “I would say 80% of my work is intuitive,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll get an image in my mind that I can’t shake; it nags me until I finally give it form. But most of the time, I let the emotion and energy guide me. I don’t sketch or plan. I just begin.” This intuitive method often results in works that are emotionally charged, atmospheric and layered with symbolic meaning. When working figuratively, she may start with a single image—often a woman’s face—and let the rest of the scene unfold through gesture, memory, and feeling.

Thematically, her work is wide-ranging but deeply rooted in storytelling, identity, and perception. Her work in series like Technocratic Oath reflect explorations of Black identity, feminine embodiment, technological alienation, and spiritual reflection. In each work, she draws from a rich matrix of personal experience, spiritual symbolism, biblical references, and contemporary theory.

GALACTICAL FLORAL PODS, 2024, Soap, acrylic, spray paint, mirror glass and beads on wood panel

Theory can be found as scaffolding in Marshall’s work, much of it is informed by personal experience. She references the cosmos and quantum physics to challenge conventional definitions of Blackness, explaining, “I watched a lot of videos on space and the galaxy and the cosmos. It really intrigued me and that kind of thinking allowed me to redefine this idea of Blackness and what that meant. And the next phase was other considerations, other definitions to consider, like when you try to define the word Black. So I tapped into quantum theory to kind of redefine that for myself. Theory helps me break the boundaries.”

Despite the complexity and theoretical depth of her work, accessibility remains essential to Marshall. She hopes viewers are first drawn in by beauty, then intrigued by ambiguity. “I want people to look and feel something—emotionally and subconsciously. I leave clues in the titles, but I try to keep things open-ended so people can bring their own stories to the work.” Whether it's a richly detailed oil painting, a sculpture made of melted soap and wire, or a photograph altered to the point of near abstraction, each piece invites inquiry and reflection.

GALACTICAL FLORAL PODS (detail), 2024, Soap, acrylic, spray paint, mirror glass and beads on wood panel

“Right now I’m excited about my new sculptures,” she shares when asked about what’s coming next for her. “I’m combining soap with discarded hardware, merging the feminine and the masculine, the domestic and the industrial. It feels weird and experimental, but it also feels right.” In her hands, these contrasting elements they cohere to tell explore a meaningful narrative. At the heart of Marshall’s process lies not only a desire to tell personal and collective stories but also a confrontation with the materials we consume, discard, and transform.

To learn more about Crystal Marshall and her work, please visit her website here and follow her on Instagram @crysart1983