Installation view of my solo, Joanne Mattera: Celebrating 25 Years with Arden Gallery, up through the end of March
One of the pleasures of getting older is the history we create for ourselves with family, friends, and colleagues. I am fortunate to have several long-term relationships with galleries, fruitful associations with colleagues who have become friends. In the previous installation, you saw Director’s Choice: Celebrating 30 Years at Kenise Barnes Fine Art, a group show curated by Kenise Barnes with some of the artists who have been with her over the long haul. In this post, I share with you photos of my solo show with Arden Gallery, Boston. Gallery director Zola Solamente selected work to represent our quarter century together.
2000 to 2025: twenty-five years in two images
Above, Uttar 5, 2000, encaustic on canvas on panel, 12 x 12 inches
Below: Call and Response 31, 2025, oil and oil pastel on 300-lb Fabriano hot press, 25 x 25 inches framed
At left: Uttar 295, 2006, encaustic on panel, 37 x 37 inches framed. Scroll down and we’ll continue around the gallery
Photo courtesy of Arden Gallery
Silk Road, clockwise from top left: #331, 2016; #370, 2017; #335, 2017; #345, 2017; all encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches
Photo courtesy of Arden Gallery
Deja Vu, 2000, encaustic on canvas on panel, 12 x 12 inches
There’s a grid etched into the surface
Mudra 17, encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches
Silk Road 457, 2019, encaustic on panel, 18 x 18 inches
I titled this series Silk Road, not only because of the fabric-like shimmer and texture, but because of the way my ideas about the interaction of color and surface travel from painting to painting, a long road of chromatic and textural expression.
Silk Road 496, 2020, encaustic on panel, 18 x 18 inches
Silk Road 469, 2020, encaustic on panel, 18 x 18 inches
Left: Uttar 252; right: Uttar 258, both encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches
I started Uttar in 2000 and continued it through 300 paintings, concluding the series in 2005. I was inspired by the saturated palette of the paintings of Renaissance Siena and the miniatures of India and Persia. The grid was an important element of the composition in Uttar
Diamond Life, 2022, encaustic on panel, 25 inches point to point
Occasionally turn my attention of hard edge geometry. I guess you could call it the rigorous yang to the succulent yin of color field. Many similarities remain: the saturated palette, my abiding interest in the surface, the richness of encaustic paint. The grid is skewed at an angle
Diamond Life 31; Chromatic Geometry 20, 2014; Chromatic Geometry 34, 2015; Diamond Life 15, 2012; all encaustic on panel
Below: We continue around the gallery, with the entrance at the far wall
Around the corner: three Silk Road, from top: #453, 2019; #374, 2019; #348, 2017, all encaustic on panel, 12 x 12 inches. On far wall, paintings by Isabelle van Zeijl
Celebrating 25 Years with Arden Gallery is up through March 31.
Arden Gallery is at 129 Newbury Street in Boston.
Big appreciation to gallery director Zola Solamente, who curated the exhibition, and her partner, Rick Boomer, who welcomes you when you visit.
Oh, and here’s a look at the two small paintings on the left side of the installation view that opens this post:
Silk Road 312
Silk Road 311
