Brenda Mallory (artist) explained

Brenda Mallory
Birth Date:1955
Birth Place:Oklahoma, United States
Known For:recycle art, installation, sculpture

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]

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". She later sold GladRags in 2011 to Tracy Puhl.

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. 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 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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: BRENDA MALLORY. UPFOR. 18 February 2020.
  2. Web site: Brenda Mallory at Julie Nester. Wichert. Geoff. Artists of Utahs 15 Bytes. 9 July 2014 . 18 February 2020.
  3. speer. Richard. 2014. Reiterations and Rifts Brenda Mallory. Surface Design Journal. 24. 18 February 2020.
  4. Web site: Awards/Grants/Residencies. Brenda Mallory. 18 February 2020.
  5. Web site: Brenda Mallory. Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. 28 June 2016. 18 February 2020.
  6. Web site: 10 Reasons to Love Portland-Based GladRags. Portland Monthly. en-US. 2020-02-25.
  7. Web site: AC+D Mentor Highlight: Brenda Mallory. Pacific Northwest College of Art. 2 March 2020.
  8. Web site: CONNECTING LINES. Holland. Ashley. portlandartmesuem. 18 February 2020.
  9. Web site: Brenda Mallory Bio. Julie Nester Gallery. 18 February 2020.
  10. Web site: Meet 2015 Fellow Brenda Mallory. Eiteljorg. 9 November 2015. 18 February 2020.
  11. Web site: CCNA: Connecting Lines. Portland Art Museum. 18 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200218203847/https://www.citationmachine.net/items/confirm. 18 February 2020. dead.
  12. Web site: Connecting Lines Brenda Mallory and Luzene Hill. NIWRC. 18 February 2020.
  13. Web site: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST Brenda Mallory. Kirschner. Noelani. The American Scholar. 8 April 2019. 18 February 2020.
  14. Web site: PAST EXHIBITIONS. moafc.org. 18 February 2020.
  15. Web site: 'Intricate Form' exhibit displays Native American art. Wiley. Lyra. The Rocky Mountain Collegian. 18 February 2020.
  16. Web site: Portal, Spring 2017. issue. 18 January 2017 . 18 February 2020. (page 32)
  17. Web site: A Further Gleaning. PCC. en. 2020-02-25.
  18. Web site: Past Exhibits. Grants Pass Art Museum. 2020-02-25.
  19. Web site: Installation Artist Brenda Mallory. 30 June 2023. PBS.
  20. Web site: Brenda Mallory: CONSTRAIN TO VERTICAL. Mallory. Brenda. 2010-02-23. Brenda Mallory. 2020-02-25.
  21. Web site: BRENDA MALLORY NAMED RECIPIENT OF SECOND UCROSS FELLOWSHIP FOR NATIVE AMERICAN VISUAL ARTISTS. Ucross Foundation. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20190804171556/http://www.ucrossfoundation.org/news/?article=87. 2019-08-04. 2020-02-25.
  22. Web site: CCNA: Connecting Lines. Portland Art Museum. en-US. 2020-02-25.
  23. Web site: Artist Catalog - Brenda Mallory. 2014-07-13. Julie Nester Gallery. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20140713103451/http://www.julienestergallery.com/artists_catalog.php?artistsID=6. 2014-07-13. 2020-02-25.
  24. Web site: Butters Gallery - Exhibit_Detail. ManagedArtwork.com. www.buttersgallery.com. 2020-02-25.
  25. Web site: Morphologies - 2017 c3: Papermaking Residency Exhibition. c3:initiative. en. 2020-02-25.
  26. Web site: Thank you for your ongoing support of Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts.. 2016-12-06. Crow's Shadow. en-US. 2020-02-25.
  27. Web site: 'Millennial pink' meets art in 'Symmetry Breaking' exhibit at Marylhurst. Miller. Briana. 2017-10-22. Oregonian/OregonLive. en. 2020-02-25.
  28. Web site: Brenda Mallory. Hallie Ford Museum of Art. 2020-02-25.
  29. Web site: 2018.036 - Mallory, Brenda. Hallie Ford Museum. 2020-02-25.
  30. Web site: Bio. Brenda Mallory. 18 February 2020.

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