Interview with Allison Malinsky for the exhibition,
The Edge of the Woods at Le Bath Gallery
Intro By Ines Barroso
Interview questions, Catarina Barroso
Words, Allison Malinsky
8 PM TALKS —TALK #3 - versión inglés (para castellano pincha ES/EN)
Allison is an artist who is committed to express her emotions and reflections on the world through her own language and imagery, with extreme sensitivity, honesty, and refinement. Her work reflects our connection with the visible and invisible world, highlighting the dichotomy between the nature of being with the spiritual and the intangible world.
Her work speaks directly to my heart and soul:
—It´s impossible not to feel her candid spirit and deep connection to nature though her works of
painting or sculpture. Her voice is powerful, relevant and unique.
We are enormously grateful to have her work in our pink space.
- Ines Barroso
1. Like / Don't Like
I like reading books / I don’t like reading them digitally
I like nature / I don’t like closely crawling spiders
I like technology / I don’t like social media
2. Could you introduce yourself to our readers? Who is Allison Malinsky? What do you do?
I try to understand the world through making. Through drawing, painting, and sculpture, I metaphorically aim to reach its ever-moving edge or horizon. I am drawn to relate my work with my lifelong connection to nature, its inclement tension of lightness and gravity and endless specificity of interconnected purpose. It is a way to question and gain clarity on timeless concerns when I can not encounter it elsewhere, for example in a book or conversations. Since my surroundings affect me greatly, I must share that I’m originally from rural Canterbury, NH, received my formation and more in NYC, and I’ve adopted Spain as my home for the past 10 years.
3. How would you define your identity as an artist and what do you intend to convey through your work? What are your references?
It is a privilege to be able to take the time I do to think, consider ideas and how they enter my work, and put them into form. Through these efforts, I hope to convey a possibility of closeness with the world around us as a foundation for growth, an understanding about diverging perspectives, and a demand for the importance of art.
My references have a wide range, from literature—to the complicated techniques of garment making—to local and universal laws of Nature. Among these, I have my guides whom I turn to when I find myself midway, they often show themselves in my work. I have curated some of them onto the shelves in this gallery.
4. Do you have some kind of ritual that you never miss in your creative process? What inspires you the most?
I tend to have the habit of checking in on my plants before even having my morning coffee. Perhaps, this is because they are the first things I see outside my bedroom and main room doors, which I open the second I get out of bed. That being said, I have found one of my best connections to the present happens when I sit on my back balcony, where there is silence from the city clatter; sounds of birds and the wind billowing in the hanging laundry all accompanied by the warm afternoon to evening sun. It´s a requirement, that space and silence, for my creative practice—to read or write, sketch.
For me, inspiration can come from so many places and subjects of which I think I have mentioned in much of this interview. The trick is to be working and open to it when it comes. Also, seeing really well thought out exhibitions and well-made work with unique vision is extremely inspiring. I have begun to take my own chances in that respect, curating internationally made work for the upcoming inaugural programming of the Barcelona-based arts initiative called Zona Franca Projects, of which I am the founding director.
5. What can we expect from YOUR NEW exhibition in our secret space, LE BATH gallery?
For me, your cosy pink secret-not-so-secret space lends itself to drawings, ones that can be seen almost simultaneously in their close proximity. I chose to hang a series of pastel studies; trees, constellations, and varying guides for a journey, along with one large abstract oil painting utilizing the colors, textures and a feeling of the forest edge of my childhood backyard. The works were chosen, in part, to counter the city machine whir on Calle Torrent d’Olla heard through the emblematic round Le Bath Gallery windows. All of the 2D works on view have informed my 3D paintings I am working on now and I consider them filled with hope as they are explorations, all while containing natural elements that give an earthly gravity I like to keep present, especially during long stints in my home cities of Barcelona or NYC.
6. What other projects do you have in mind, what are you working on and what other plans do you have for 2021?
There is steady continuation on my three-dimensional Interview with the Sea painting series which is an ongoing conversation of painting on a very long rectangular horizontal cut of cortina folded linen. Heavily present in these paintings are concepts of the sea and epic Mediterranean poetry (The Odyssey, The Aeneid and The Divine Comedy). Technically, these oil paintings have challenged me for years, first to approach that complex multi-planar surface and to custom build its similarly complex unique support. Getting a piece of cloth to stand up or hang firmly on the wall is a hard trick conquer. I will exhibit a group of these works in Fall, 2021.
Another ongoing project is called Way and Weighing, large installations of suspended still rings made in separate series, as of now, one of porcelain and the other in Carrara marble. This sculptural project further expands on our relationship to meet life´s challenges and be present throughout the unpredictability of our fate.
I just began working on a collection of paintings to be joined together for Leaving the Shore, a continuation of painted associations to movement towards the horizon. I have made connection in this series to the Shaker community and its simple design, the center focus of my small country town and constant reference.
7. Define Allison Malinsky in eight words.
Alegre
awake
creative
curious
energetic
persistent
sun centric
8. Would you dedicate a self-portrait to us?
Of course, why not!
- June 4, 2021
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