Brenda Mallory (artist)

Last updated
Brenda Mallory
Born1955
Oklahoma, United States
Education
  • B.A. in Linguistics & English, University of California Los Angeles
  • B.F.A. in General Fine Art, Pacific Northwest College of Art
Known forrecycle art, installation, sculpture
Website www.brendamallory.com

Brenda Mallory (born 1955) [1] is a Native American visual/sculpture/mixed media/installation artist and a member of the Cherokee Nation. Her artwork ranges from small decorations to large sculptures and utilizes a variety of materials such as handmade papers, cloth, wax, and recycled objects. [2]

Contents

Personal life and education

Mallory was born in 1955 and grew up in northeastern Oklahoma. [1] She watched her father's crafting techniques of binding objects together with baling wires, which she credits as an influence in her art: "especially slapdash aesthetics of the hard connections of the nuts and bolts". [3]

She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned a B.A. in Linguistics & English and went on to earn a B.F.A. in General Fine Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. [4]

Career

Mallory has described herself as a "late-bloomer as a self-employed artist", as she started exhibiting as an artist in 2002. [5] She has participated in several solo and group art exhibitions and has received multiple grants and residencies.

In 1993 Mallory and Karen Paule co-founded the company GladRags, as Mallory came up with the idea of the company after looking at her daughter's reusable diapers. [6] GladRags produces washable, reusable menstrual pads and Mallory has noted that in 2000 she incorporated extraneous pieces of the pads into one of her class assignments after dipping them in wax, stating that it " has the malleability of clay but not the fragility. It also has a mysterious quality; people look at it and don’t know what it is". [3] She later sold GladRags in 2011 to Tracy Puhl. [6]

Mallory has organized several exhibitions and has occasionally served as an instructor of contemporary art and a mentor. [7]

Artworks

“I think art often expresses meanings that words cannot. Words are definite, and once uttered, a thought is concretized, whereas images reach a part of the brain where the viewer becomes a participant in making meaning depending on the information they bring from their own brain. There can be multiple and deeply embedded meanings that are not always obvious.” ––––Brenda Mallory [8]

Mallory works with mixed media, she uses mostly natural materials to create geometric shapes with loud colors and forms that join together with wires, becoming an abstract, multi-surfaced, and complicated product. Though Brenda Mallory's subjects and designs were heavily influenced by her father, but she also is interested in subjects like nature, culture, society, and history. [8] Her artwork contains a lot of symbolism and metaphors, She expresses her values and wishes, make new discoveries through her art. Overall, Mallory has two main subjects she has been focusing on throughout her life as an artist.

Recurring Chapters in the Book of Inevitable Outcomes

Ultimately, Mallory communicates through the symbolisms, she implies her concerns about the health of the environment and the interactions between humans and nature. One other important topic of Mallory's work is using art to support individuals, families, and cultures that suffer from outside forceful influences. Overall, Mallory's main topic with her work is to improve the conditions of mistreated people and nature by drawing attention with her artwork. [9] For example, Figure 1 captures an installation on Mallory's 2017 art exhibition "connecting lines". Mallory created Recurring Chapters in the Book of Inevitable Outcomes when she got selected to be in the Eiteljorg Fellowship exhibition in 2015. [10] The dark unsymmetrical tall shapes scattered around but yet again joined together by wires, surrounded by colorful geometric spike-shaped forms placed on the floor and the wall. Mallory's inspiration of this piece of art was from the history of the Cherokee culture. [11] Mallory has always felt disconnected from her culture. Youth memories inspired her to create the installations. The installation is inspired by Cherokee history, and expresses ideas about disruption, repair, and renewal. [12]

Reclaimed and reformed

Mallory was already known for using recycled and used materials in her artwork in support of the environment, she also reuses old artworks and projects as materials for new projects. [13] The project "reclaimed and reformed" was created by Mallory when she stayed as a resident for 5 months at the art institution GLEAN. This project contains a collection of new and old artworks transformed largely from discarded trash found in a local dumpster. Some artworks from this collection were displayed in exhibition Intricate Form at the Museum of Art Fort Collins from January 18 – March 17, 2019. [14] The project contains small sections of artworks made from similar materials. Such as Firehose Experiment, indicating artworks made from firehoses; similarly, Reformed Packings indicating artworks created by packing materials, etcetera. It is believed[ by whom? ] that Mallory hoped to express support for nature protection and to draw attention to energy waste through her fame and exhibitions. [15]

Select exhibitions

Single and double exhibitions

Double exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Permanent collections

Awards, grants and residencies

Grants

Awards

Residencies

Mallory has participated in artist residencies including Ucross, Anderson Ranch, Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, Glean, Bullseye Glass, and Signal Fire Outpost, and the Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency at Sitka Center for the Arts. [30]

Related Research Articles

Marie Watt is a contemporary artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. Enrolled in the Seneca Nation of Indians, Watt has created work primarily with textile arts and community collaboration centered on diverse Native American themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Gym</span>

The Art Gym was a nonprofit, noncollecting contemporary arts gallery at Marylhurst University in Marylhurst, Oregon, United States. The gallery had been permanently moved to the Portland Art Museum in 2018, as Marylhurst University closed at the end of 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jones and Ginzel</span>

Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel are a contemporary American artist team. Both Jones and Ginzel pursue independent careers in the arts, but they are best known for their collaborative, large scale public art projects, installations and exhibitions in museums and galleries internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lavadour</span> American painter

James Lavadour is an American painter and printmaker. A member of the Walla Walla tribe, he is known for creating large panel sets of landscape paintings. Lavadour is the co-founder of the Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts.

I believe that a painting must stand up on its own without explanation. I think of myself as an abstract action painter. I just happen to see landscape in the abstract events of paint. - James Lavadour

MK Guth is an installation artist from Portland, Oregon, United States, whose work engages ritual and site of social interaction. She has exhibited nationally and internationally at museums, galleries, and festivals including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Swiss Institute, White Columns, and the Melbourne International Arts Festival among others. She is the recipient of the Betty Bowen Special Recognition Award and the Ford Family Foundation Fellowship.

Pat Boas is an American contemporary artist. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Pacific Northwest College of Art and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Portland State University, where she currently teaches and serves as the Director of the School of Art + Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Red Star</span> Native American contemporary artist

Wendy Red Star is an Apsáalooke contemporary multimedia artist born in Billings, Montana, in the United States. Her humorous approach and use of Native American images from traditional media draw the viewer into her work, while also confronting romanticized representations. She juxtaposes popular depictions of Native Americans with authentic cultural and gender identities. Her work has been described as "funny, brash, and surreal".

Norma Heyser is an American contemporary artist from Portland, Oregon, who worked in mixed media and new art forms, influenced by Cubism and Abstract expressionism.

Skawennati is a Mohawk multimedia artist, best known for her online works as well as Machinima that explore contemporary Indigenous cultures, and what Indigenous life might look like in futures inspired by science fiction. She served as the 2019 Indigenous Knowledge Holder at McGill University. In 2011, she was awarded an Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship which recognized her as one of "the best and most relevant native artists."

Ann Pibal is an American painter who makes geometric compositions using acrylic paint on aluminum panel. The geometric intensity is one of the key characteristics that defines her paintings.

Tannaz Farsi is an Iranian-born American multidisciplinary visual artist and educator. Farsi is an Associate Professor of sculpture at the University of Oregon. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avantika Bawa</span>

Avantika Bawa is an Indian American artist, curator, and professor of art. Bawa is a multidisciplinary artist who works primarily in site-specific installation, video, printmaking, and drawing. She is the recipient of the 2018 Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts Golden Spot Residency Award, the Hallie Ford Fellowship in the Visual Arts, and the Oregon Arts Commission Joan Shipley Award.

Heidi Schwegler is an American artist in Yucca Valley, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose B. Simpson</span> Mixed-media artist

Rose B. Simpson is a mixed-media artist who works in ceramic, metal, fashion, painting, music, performance, and installation. She lives and works in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited at SITE Santa Fe ; the Heard Museum ; the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe (2010); the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian (2008); the Denver Art Museum; Pomona College Museum of Art (2016); Ford Foundation Gallery (2019); The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (2017); the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2019); the Savannah College of Art and Design (2020); the Nevada Museum of Art (2021); Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Norton Museum of Art (2024).

Anna Tsouhlarakis is a Native American artist who creates installation, video, and performance art. She is an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation and of Muscogee Creek and Greek descent. Her work has been described as breaking stereotypes surrounding Native Americans and provoking thought, rather than focusing solely on aesthetics. Tsouhlarakis wants to redefine what Native American art means and its many possibilities. She also works at the University of Colorado Boulder as an Assistant professor.

Hannah Claus is a multidisciplinary visual artist of English and Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) ancestries and is a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation.

Margaret E. Jacobs is a Native American artist and member of the Akwesasne Mohawk tribe, known for her sculptures, jewelry, and sketching. She draws inspiration from her culture and upbringing. She values natural and synthetic objects and is inspired by buildings in the United States; they are a reminder of Mohawk ironworkers who left their tribes and communities to help build structures. Most of Jacobs' work has been based on the history of the Mohawks, her cultural heritage, and stories.

Demian DinéYazhi' is a Native American artist and activist. Their work and advocacy focuses on indigenous and LGBTQ+ people and "consists of photography, sculpture, text, sound, video, land art performance, installation, street art and fabrics art."

Luzene Hill is a Native American multimedia artist and citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She combines performance with installation to reflect on violence against women, using lyrical abstraction to approach difficult topics. She is best known for her 2011-2015 work Retracing the Trace, an installation reflecting on the prevalence and pain of sexual assault through the lens of Hill's own experience. Her works primarily explore themes of the trauma and shame produced by various types of violence enacted against women and indigenous cultures and the transformative healing powers of art. Beyond the United States, Hill's art has exhibited internationally in Canada, Russia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Dan Earl May, also known as D. E. May, was an American artist, represented by Portland, Oregon art gallery, PDX CONTEMPORARY ART, from 1995 to now. Known in Northwest art circles for his drawings and constructions using found materials that “suggests they are documents or tools left over from the [building] and planning of something larger” whose “purpose is now lost and can only be imagined.” His work is in the collections of numerous art museums, primarily in the Northwest.

References

  1. 1 2 "BRENDA MALLORY". UPFOR. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  2. ↑ Wichert, Geoff (9 July 2014). "Brenda Mallory at Julie Nester". Artists of Utahs 15 Bytes. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 speer, Richard (2014). "Reiterations and Rifts Brenda Mallory" (PDF). Surface Design Journal: 24. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "Awards/Grants/Residencies" (PDF). Brenda Mallory. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  5. 1 2 "Brenda Mallory". Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  6. 1 2 "10 Reasons to Love Portland-Based GladRags". Portland Monthly. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  7. ↑ "AC+D Mentor Highlight: Brenda Mallory". Pacific Northwest College of Art. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  8. 1 2 Holland, Ashley. "CONNECTING LINES" (PDF). portlandartmesuem. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "Brenda Mallory Bio". Julie Nester Gallery. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 "Meet 2015 Fellow Brenda Mallory". Eiteljorg. 9 November 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  11. ↑ "CCNA: Connecting Lines". Portland Art Museum. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  12. ↑ "Connecting Lines Brenda Mallory and Luzene Hill". NIWRC. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  13. ↑ Kirschner, Noelani (8 April 2019). "PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST Brenda Mallory". The American Scholar. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  14. ↑ "PAST EXHIBITIONS". moafc.org. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  15. ↑ Wiley, Lyra. "'Intricate Form' exhibit displays Native American art". The Rocky Mountain Collegian. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  16. ↑ "Portal, Spring 2017". issue. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2020. ( page 32)
  17. ↑ "A Further Gleaning". PCC. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  18. ↑ "Past Exhibits". Grants Pass Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  19. ↑ "Installation Artist Brenda Mallory". PBS. 30 June 2023.
  20. ↑ Mallory, Brenda (2010-02-23). "Brenda Mallory: CONSTRAIN TO VERTICAL". Brenda Mallory. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  21. ↑ "BRENDA MALLORY NAMED RECIPIENT OF SECOND UCROSS FELLOWSHIP FOR NATIVE AMERICAN VISUAL ARTISTS". Ucross Foundation. Archived from the original on 2019-08-04. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  22. ↑ "CCNA: Connecting Lines". Portland Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  23. ↑ "Artist Catalog - Brenda Mallory". Julie Nester Gallery. 2014-07-13. Archived from the original on 2014-07-13. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  24. ↑ ManagedArtwork.com. "Butters Gallery - Exhibit_Detail". www.buttersgallery.com. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  25. ↑ "Morphologies - 2017 c3: Papermaking Residency Exhibition". c3:initiative. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  26. ↑ "Thank you for your ongoing support of Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts". Crow's Shadow. 2016-12-06. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  27. ↑ Miller, Briana (2017-10-22). "'Millennial pink' meets art in 'Symmetry Breaking' exhibit at Marylhurst". Oregonian/OregonLive. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  28. ↑ "Brenda Mallory". Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  29. ↑ "2018.036 - Mallory, Brenda". Hallie Ford Museum. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  30. ↑ "Bio". Brenda Mallory. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.