Tolerance

Chris Mars made a name for himself as the drummer of the seminal 1980s band The Replacements, but his true calling involves a different kind of brush. Mars has since moved to L.A. and now spends most of his time painting the elaborate, ghoulish, mystical, surreal, and disturbing dreamscapes that bubble up from his gifted and (apparently) tortured imagination. His work is Strange with an extra-huge “S,” but it’s also thoughtful and compelling, replete with fascinating ideas about death, grief, sorrow, suffering, and—inescapably—madness. Indeed, Mars’s older brother, Joe, was institutionalized at St. Cloud Mental Hospital when Chris was only five years old, and the paintings in Tolerance are in many ways a direct response to his brother’s lifelong battle with schizophrenia.