Blue Mountain Gallery to Present Peter Malone Solo Exhibit, 7/29-8/16

Blue Mountain Gallery will present a solo exhibition of paintings by Peter Malone, which will run from July 29 to August 16, 2014. An opening reception will be held Thursday July 31, from 5-8pm.

Included in the show are several drawings and a few still life pictures from the past ten years that demonstrate his affinity for light as a compelling property of all his work. However the greater part of the exhibition is dedicated to recent portraits from a series begun in 2011, a series the artist states is likely to occupy him for the foreseeable future. The portraits too rely on light, but their primary focus is the sitter's encounter with the viewer. Each portrait represents a conscious effort by the artist to engage the viewer with the presence of another individual.

As the artist himself puts it, "The traditional role of the portrait artist was as a sort of public relations expert who portrayed the sitter in a predetermined context, usually one defined by official station or one that illustrated the sitter's social position. I'm interested in the experience of the contemporary museum patrons who stand before portraits of individuals for which they have little knowledge and no familiarity, leaving both sitter and viewer with an artificial encounter, the strength of which relies on the artist's success in convincing the viewer of the sitter's presence and fundamental humanity."

A graduate of the School of Visual Arts and of Teachers College, Columbia University, and the recipient of a 2014 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Peter Malone has for thirty years participated in group and solo exhibitions at numerous venues, including St. John's University, New York; The National Academy of Design, New York; William Patterson College, Wayne, New Jersey; the Municipal Gallery, Kharkov, Ukraine; the Munson Williams Proctor Art Museum, Utica, NY; Set Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; the Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York; Dowling College, Oakdale, New York; Gallery Henoch, New York; Schafler Gallery at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; the Laguna-Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas; Stephen Austin State University, Nacodoches, TX; the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York; Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York; and has had several one person shows at the Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, Vermont. He is the author of Back Words: One Painter's voice in the Conversation (CreateSpace, 2012), and has since 2013 written reviews and articles for Artcritical.com and Hyperallergic.com. From September 2000 to March 2014 he had served as Art Gallery Director at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, where since 1984 he had taught both art history and studio courses.