Gallery News: Maria Malatesta’s Marking Time Exhibition Reception June 25

June 23, 2015

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Montserrat College of Art is excited to announce Marking Time, a solo exhibition of paintings by Maria Malatesta in the Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery. The exhibition highlights the inspiration Malatesta gains from nature and its influence on the way she paints; expressive, reflective, and expansive. There will be a public reception for this exhibition Thursday, June 25, 4 – 6pm at the Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery, 23 Essex St. Beverly, MA, 1st floor.

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Malatesta paints to explore meaning, boundaries, and uncertainty. She describes her process as an exercise between trusting instinct and slipping into the unknown. She compares the layered process to pages in a book, saying, “Each painting leads to and informs the next. I try not to judge, but to see and to know when and where the painting has settled into itself.” A large part of accepting when a painting is “settled in” is what Malatesta calls, rhythm of the paint; feeling it, acknowledging the materials potential, and continuing along the journey.

Marking Time features eleven paintings from Malatesta’s “Field” and “Stripes” series. These two bodies of work interpret nature abstractly. The “Field” series depicts landscape through a generative accumulation of mark making. Malatesta gradually unveils nature as a poetic amalgamation of color, expressive brushstrokes, and layers of marks. Each time the brush touches the surface of the work, Malatesta marks the present moment, leaving traces of where she is on her rhythmic journey.

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The series “Stripes” is a quieter exploration of nature. Malatesta transitions from thick, expressive marks to minimal bands of color. Stripes, Triptych #1 presents three boards of autumn-like hues (brown, orange, mustard yellow and tan) with cool rows of cream and light blue. Each band, stretching the width of one board, is in dialogue with the other surfaces of the two adjacent boards. Viewed together, the triptych creates a similar rhythm, alike “Field” series, depicting the harmonious presence of nature.

Maria received the Diploma and Fifth Year Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and a Bachelor of Science from Lesley College, Cambridge MA. She also studied at University of California at Davis. For the past 10 years she has studied with Timothy Hawkesworth in Pennsylvania. She has also taken numerous painting trips to Italy. In 2010, Malatesta was in a two person show at Mingo Gallery in Beverly and in 2009 in a two person show at Pagus Gallery in Pennsylvania. Her work has been shown in many shows in the Boston area and the North Shore. Her studio is in the South End of Boston. Malatesta teaches at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA and privately in her studio.

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Marking Time is on view in the Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery June 23 – July 18, 2015.

WHAT Maria Malatesta: Marking Time
WHEN June 23 – July 18, 2015
WHERE Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery, 23 Essex St. Beverly, MA 01915
Gallery Hours: Mon- Thurs 10am-5pm, Fri 10am-1pm
www.montserrat.edu/galleries
gallery@montserrat.edu
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Montserrat College of Art’s public programs are free of charge and open to the public. For more information contact Assistant Curator of Education, Savery Kelley at 978-867-9624 or via email <savery.kelley@montserrat.edu>.
https://www.montserrat.edu/gallery-public-programs-fall-2015/

WHAT Reception
WHEN Thursday, June 25, 4-6pm
WHERE Carol Schlosberg Alumni Gallery, 23 Essex St. Beverly, MA, 1st floor

Montserrat College of Art is a small, private, residential college of visual art and design, founded in 1970 by artists, for artists, educating the creative problem solvers of tomorrow. The college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, continuing education classes for youth, teens and adults, and three galleries exhibiting works by international, national and regional contemporary artists, that offer art education beyond the Montserrat classrooms through a series of public lectures, gallery talks, catalogs and events.

Visit us at www.montserrat.edu for more details and Where Creativity Works™.