I was born in the Bronx, NY in the late 80s, when Hip Hop was taking over. The city's loud, chaotic energy is part of my DNA. I’ve carried it into every space I’ve entered, even the ones meant to silence me. I didn’t always call myself an artist, but I’ve always created. As a child, I would draw superheroes and later started painting on clothes and sneakers. I saw beauty in things people overlooked. After being incarcerated at 18, I stopped painting completely. Years passed. And then… something stirred. I started creating again, and what poured out wasn’t just art, it was transformation. I didn’t just rediscover my talent. I found a path. I found myself.
Initially I made collages, finding any material I could use from magazines, to construction paper, to institutional forms. I make canvas using prison bedsheets and purchase extra ones for this purpose. I use acrylic paints that I purchase and at times I acquire the paint the facility uses for maintenance.
My work is transcendental, focusing on the process from one stage to the next whether it's socially, spiritually or physically. My signature symbols—paw prints, hand prints and the golden ratio spiral—represent the transition from the lower self to the highest self. I create works based on personal experiences, social commentary, or abstract ideas.
When I paint I disappear from the prison world. It's like a cloak is protecting me from harm that may come from this place. I become the creation I’m building. A lot of my pieces are rooted in feminine energy because women can give birth. I want my artwork to bring forth life. I’m not just painting pictures. I’m painting a way out of my current condition and painting my way into the life I truly deserve. These pieces are visual testimonies that say, ”I am more than this place.” When the world truly sees what I’ve been pouring out in my art, the world will come looking for me—because I’ve outgrown this space.
Marcus Anthony Pearson aka Markus Xcells, is a visual artist currently incarcerated in the Tennessee Department of Corrections. He was born in the Bronx, NY in the late 80s when Hip Hop was taking over the mainstream. His work pulses with that same loud, chaotic energy — a fusion of street culture, spiritual symbolism, and lived experience. Though he moved to Tennessee at a young age, the Bronx never left him. It shaped his eye, his edge, and his sense of urgency.
Markus began expressing himself through art at a young age, customizing clothing and sneakers with paint. But at 18, his life took a turn; incarceration interrupted his creative path for years. It wasn’t until recently, after more than a decade inside, that he picked up the brush again. As an untrained artist he used what he could find in the facility and formed his style as he went. What emerged was an outpouring of imagery: vivid, symbolic, and layered with meaning. Markus doesn’t just create art. He is Art. He believes that life is art–from capturing a moment and sharing it with others to looking at the bright side of things in dark times. He believes Art is making something out of nothing and that is what he's doing.
Much of Markus’ work explores the journey from the lower self to one's higher self, or the reverse—degradation. His pieces are deeply personal, rooted in transformation and consciousness, often centering feminine energy, even when unspoken.
In just a few years of painting, his work has already been featured in several projects including: the group exhibition Dreams & Nightmares, One Drop Ink Creative Suites, Nashville, TN (2024-2025); an estate sale, hosted by Cotton Row, Memphis,TN (2025); the Better Than Jails abolitionist album project, produced by Brian Hunt of Believe Entertainment Group, Kenny Greenburg, and Wally Wilson (2024); the group exhibition, Under One Roof, Gordon Jewish Community Center, Nashville, TN (October 2025); and forthcoming is his curatorial debut, The Exit, Goodwyn Gallery, Memphis TN (May 2026).
Marcus Pearson #427573
P.O. Box 2000
Wartburg,TN 37887
TNDOC Morgan County Correctional Complex (MCCX)
Tennesse | MCCX
