Maria Pezzano: Repeating Imprints
February 11 to April 26, 2009
Guelph painter Maria Pezzano has been practicing her craft for more than twenty years, during which she has achieved recognition for her bright acrylic palettes and whimsical compositions featuring florals, still lifes, and domestic scenes. The exhibition, Repeating Imprints, was a marked departure from this work for which Pezzano is so closely associated. She has moved away from the clean lines and high colour palette of her earlier works and engaged an iterative process, where her journey toward the completion of each canvas is embedded in the finished work, both literally and figuratively. This shift in Pezzano’s
practice was revealed in the exhibition Repeating Imprints, curated by Dawn Owen (MSAC assistant curator).
While Pezzano’s new compositions have acquired a quiet complexity, there are discernible elements that reflect the trajectory of her aesthetic; namely, her fascination with botanicals. The colour and repetition found in nature are an inspiration for Pezzano. The flowers, vines, and leaves in her current works are painted in natural tones made earthier by the introduction of small petals in rich reds or subtle metallics that glimmer against a muted ground. Pezzano’s patterns recall those found in textiles, wall paper, tole ware, and architectural objects such as handmade tin ceilings. A process that was inspired when she found a set of wood blocks hand-carved with intricate designs that were originally used in the printing of fabrics. Pezzano began incorporating the block prints into her paintings. Today, she creates her own designs carved in linoleum from which she pulls prints on translucent rice papers. She then builds each composition by layering the prints on stretched canvas and adhering them with acrylic mediums and paint. Pezzano’s careful grid formations are disrupted now and then by patterns that grow, vinelike, beyond the compositional structures.
The exhibition, Maria Pezzano: Repeating Imprints, iwas supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Opening Reception
Wednesday, February 11 at 7 pm
Artist Talk with Maria Pezzano
Tuesday, February 24 at noon
Images:
Left: Maria Pezzano, Agapanthus, Corners of Love, 2009
(acrylic, rice paper, mixed acrylic medium on canvas, 48 x 48 inches)
Right: Maria Pezzano, Rhododendron with Vines, 2009
(acrylic, rice paper, mixed acrylic medium on canvas, 48 x 48 inches)