Elizabeth Mallia is an emerging printmaker currently working on Long Island, NY. Born in 1985, she remembers always being artistically inclined. Elizabeth studied abroad in Italy in May of 2006. She graduated summa cum laude from Adelphi University in 2007 with her BA in printmaking and painting and received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual Art. Her work has been presented in exhibitions at Adelphi University in Garden City, NY; Alpan Gallery, Huntington, NY; Phoenix Fine Art Gallery, Bellport, NY; the Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY; and the Second Avenue Firehouse Gallery, Bay Shore, NY. Elizabeth also exhibited at the 22nd Parkside National Small Print Exhibition in Kenosha, WI, where she was selected for the Juror's Purchase Award. Artist Statement As a printmaker my work focuses mainly on monotypes. I am captivated by the presence of urban and rural landscapes and structures, as well as the juxtaposition between the two. I do not work directly from life as my goal is not to simply mimic my surroundings, but rather to have an expressive response to my environment. I am influenced by my memory and nostalgic sensibility. It is about capturing a transitory moment. Areas, structures, and moments I have encountered growing up are very influential. I focus on reducing land in a minimalist manner, concentrating more on essence and atmosphere. Through this my work transforms into a journey and stage for the drama of light, air and movement, creating mysterious dynamic contrasts and interactions. I am often asked about my preference of monotypes over paintings. I find that monotypes combine an element of spontaneity and yield a unique surface, translucency and quality of light that is very different from a painting on paper, yet allows me to keep in the traditions of painting. It is important to me to maintain this element of spontaneity and directness in the medium so that I can experience and react to it. From this I can experiment with gravity, pulling line in unexpected ways and pushing flatness against atmospheric. I am fascinated with the idea of reduction and suggestion. What may look like a harbor from afar is in actuality a reduced set of lines. These unusual and unexpected qualities allow my imagery to be just as engaging up close as it is from a distance. This is the quiet place in my mind. It is fleeting; a place from memory that seems familiar to the viewer, structures they may pass in everyday life, yet are somehow illusive. The repeating forms of telephone poles, wires, lamp posts and buildings are becoming more central to the visual rhythm in my work. My goal is to look for connections between things: how one color flows into another; forms engage and separate; how one point in space influences another, creating landscapes that become abstractions of an ever changing display of color, rhythm, and texture. I am compelled to continue to explore the intensity of this dynamic interaction. This process is not only an analytical one for me, but a revelatory response to the visual encounters throughout my lif |
