Poured "2014" :: Artist Statement

 

At this stage in my life – 50 with a full-time business and a beautiful wife and energetic 2-year-old daughter – my art-making is in a continual state of starting and stopping. And where I leave off, is not always where I pick up. The one constant, however, is that I keep making art. Despite my conflicting priorities, I seem to make lots of art.

 

My process is very multifaceted. I make marks and pour paint on paper, canvas, cardboard and objects of all sorts. I sculpt, construct and assemble with wood, steel and stone.

 

These 40 pieces are only a fraction of this particular exploration, a pursuit that I think of as “Reductionism”. Throughout the process, I am tempted to stop with every mark, touch or build, in order to reduce my work to the bare essence, while pulling back from the potential to over-think or over-work a piece.

 

I relish the pursuit of invention in my work, finding untold inspiration in discarded and reclaimed objects. Though the end result of my efforts is critical to my own artistic satisfaction, it’s the pursuit of invention that keeps me coming back to the studio with a continually renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm.

 

From the Gallery Director: 

 

“With a slight nod toward midcentury modern design, Malone’s work has taken a shift toward the minimal. Singular amorphic forms are a spectacle to the pure visual pleasure that results of poured paint, while impressions within the once wet surface reveal strangely familiar industrial characters. The surrounding negative space creates a formal setting reminiscent to that of ancient relics presented in a museum. Similarly, Malone’s paint flow has extended to wall sculptures in which thick color melts over and merges with a diversity of unexpected objects. This clearly is a reaction to the process with an exciting outcome that is at once raw and refined.

 

In other works, spontaneous abstract paintings involve scenes of micro-environments interwoven with organic forms. His sixties-like palette coupled with the occasional graphite under-drawing builds a web of contrasts. Suggestions of bulbous figurative forms are enhanced by quivering paint edges, generating distinct contrast with Malone's industrial line. Flow and repetition create balance, harnessing disorder and allowing for structure that has an effect that is at once energetic and deliberate.”

 

                                               — Meri DeCaria, Phillips Gallery