elizabeth malaska

ELIZABETH MALASKA IN THE GODDESS SHOW AT RAINMAKER

Painting by Eryn Boone

Painting by Eryn Boone

Congratulations to Elizabeth Malaska for her inclusion in The Goddess Show, organized by Rachel Brown-Smith and Veronica Reeves at the Rainmaker Artist Residency. This exhibition of West Coast artists highlights feminine divinity and spirituality that is independent of patriarchal ideology. Malaska is in good company, showing here with Hayley Barker, Jason Berlin, Eryn Boone, Rachel Brown-Smith, Anna Fider, and Veronica Reeves. The two paintings she is presenting have never been exhibited before. Can't wait for this!

On view April 7—29, 2017
Opening reception Friday, April 7 (6—9 p.m.)
Rainmaker Gallery at Rainmaker Artist Residency
2337 NW York St. #201
Portland, OR 97210

ELIZABETH MALASKA & NATIONALE AT ALTER SPACE IN SF

Nationale was proud to be part of Alter Space's Mind Control, an alternative art fair which took place in San Francisco this January. Featuring Elizabeth Malaska's No Man's Land and a bold statement from the artist.

This collaboration was part of the Manifesto Wall—a wall featuring paper statements on the state of the US right now, created by participating galleries and artists from across the country. Shout-out to Quality Gallery in Oakland for their manifesto: Quality is a gallery in a living room because there aren't enough spaces and places to support the visual arts without pressure or money incentive to succeed. Quality loves you.

BERNSTEIN / COUNTS / MALASKA & THE OCAC AUCTION PREVIEW

Gallery artists Amy Bernstein and Emily Counts, andartist Elizabeth Malaska all have work in Oregon College of Art and Craft's upcoming Art on the Vine auction supporting student scholarships. The official auction is April 8th, 2017 at the Portland Art Museum, but this coming Sunday, January 29th (2–5pm) there will be a preview party of the work included in the auction at OCAC's Hoffman Gallery. More details can be found HERE. If you can't make it Sunday, no worries! The work will remain on view until February 4th.

Hoffman Gallery, OCAC Campus
8245 SW Barnes Road, Portland 97225

PADA PANEL DISCUSSION: SHAPING EMERGING ARTISTS 1/21

Please join gallery artist Elizabeth Malaska and Nationale Assistant Director, Gabi Lewton-Leopold for a PADA panel discussion alongside: Stephanie Chefas, gallerist; Rory ONeal, artist; Michelle Ross, artist and teacher; and Peter Simensky, teacher and artist at Blackfish Gallery. The panel will be discussing important questions surrounding emerging artists in our community, such as: What are the forces shaping the development of Portland's emerging artists? How do arts professionals in Portland negotiate the trick dance between creativity and commerce?

Saturday, January 21, 2017
2-3pm
Blackfish Gallery
420 SW 9th Ave

The talk is free and open to the public!

ELIZABETH MALASKA OPENING RECEPTION THIS SUNDAY!

Elizabeth Malaska, We Shall Speak and It Shall Be So and What We Say Will be All You Know, 2016, oil, Flashe, spray paint, and pencil on canvas, 22 x 18"

Elizabeth Malaska, We Shall Speak and It Shall Be So and What We Say Will be All You Know, 2016, oil, Flashe, spray paint, and pencil on canvas, 22 x 18"

Two years in the making, artist Elizabeth Malaksa's powerful new body of work proves that painting can be a catalyst for action in the struggle against our global culture of patriarchal aggression. As Sarah Sentilles writes in her essay for the exhibition catalog:

Malaska has taken on the fraught feminist challenge of painting women without objectifying women. It is as if Picasso's models have come to life (perhaps they are Malaska's awakened dead?), marching out of his canvases in protest and into hers.

Please join us this Sunday, September 4 (3–6PM) for the opening reception of When We Dead Awaken II. 

STUDIES / A GROUP SHOW OPENS THIS SATURDAY

For this exhibition, we've asked a group of artists to respond to the idea of a “study,” as either a single stage in a larger process, or as a continual meditation on a single subject, both being a place to test out ideas and experiment. The result is a diverse group of styles, perspectives, and ways of working. 

Although every piece is representative of a small moment in a larger body of work within each artist’s practice, they are also objects and worlds unto themselves with their own formal and conceptual concerns. With their stops and starts, imperfections, ruminations, and empty spaces, these collages, sketches, and paintings are visual notes offering a rare and intimate view into the creative process.  

Join us this Saturday, February 6 for the reception (3—6 pm). More info & bios HERE

DELANEY ALLEN / TY ENNIS / ELIZABETH MALASKA IN "SPANNING HISTORIES"

From left to right:
Elizabeth Malaska, MFA '11 / Venus Leo (After Rossetti)
Delaney Allen, MFA '10 / Recreating the Heavens in the Swimming Pool
Ty Ennis, BFA '03 / Pulp

Gallery artists and PNCA alumni Delaney Allen, Ty Ennis, and Elizabeth Malaska are all featured in Spanning Histories, PNCA's first ever Alumni Art Auction curated by Nan Curtis, Emily Ginsburg, Matthew Letzelter, Lennie Pitkin, Killeen Hanson, MK Guth, and Mack McFarland. Please join us all this Friday, January 29 at PNCA for the auction's free preview. For more information, visit the event's page.

ELIZABETH MALASKA RECEIVES ARTIST FELLOWSHIP FROM THE OREGON ARTS COMMISSION

Elizabeth in her studio. Photograph by Gia Goodrich

Elizabeth in her studio. Photograph by Gia Goodrich

Congratulations to Elizabeth Malaska on her recent award from the Oregon Arts Commission! Elizabeth, alongside 12 other amazing artists, was just awarded a 2016 Individual Artist Fellowship.

About the Fellowship: 
The Arts Commission’s fellowship program is available to more than 20,000 artists who call Oregon home. Fellows are recommended by a review panel of arts professionals from Oregon and beyond who consider artists of outstanding talent, demonstrated ability and commitment to the creation of new work(s). This year visual and design arts were reviewed. The 2016 review panel included gallerist Amy Adams, artists MJ Anderson and Modou Dieng, curator Yaelle S. Amir and museum director Scott Malbaurn and was chaired by Arts Commissioner Christopher Acebo. Their recommendations were approved by the full Arts Commission. 

The following visual artists were awarded 2016 fellowships: 
Natalie Ball, Chiloquin (Joan Shipley Fellow) 
Fernanda D’Agostino, Portland
Laurie Danial, Portland
Tannaz Farsi, Eugene
Julie Green, Corvallis
Laura Heit, Portland
Michael Hensley, Portland
Aaron Flint Jamison, Portland
Jim Lommasson, Portland
Elizabeth Malaska, Portland
Brenna Murphy, Portland
Ronna Neuenschwander, Portland
Blair Saxon-Hill, Portland 

Read more about the program and the artists honored here. 

CONGRATULATIONS EMILY, TY, AND ELIZABETH!

Congratulations to represented artists Emily Counts, Ty Ennis, and Elizabeth Malaska on their Project Grant awards for 2016 from RACC. This funding will make a significant difference for these full time working artists and/or young parents preparing for solo exhibitions this coming year.

Emily Counts / Solo Exhibition / Artistic Focus / Visual Arts ($3,609)
I am seeking funding to create a body of work for a solo exhibition at Carl & Sloan Contemporary in mid March through April 2016. This exhibition will consist of small and large-scale abstract sculptures in a variety of media including wood, concrete and bronze, with an emphasis on ceramics. The works will explore themes of connectivity and fluidity in biology, technology and culture. With these new sculptures I will expand my ongoing experimentation with sequenced, stacked and connected objects. My goal is to create for the viewer an environment that suggests a narrative format, within each sculpture and throughout the gallery space, without the use of representational forms. Wall mounted pieces in various sizes will surround a large central freestanding sculpture. It will be my tallest and most complex sculpture I have created to date, comprised of stacked individual objects that decrease dramatically in size as they rise in a 7-foot column. I believe this piece especially is necessary for my creative development and that it will be a powerful focal point for the entire exhibition.

Ty Ennis / Solo Exhibition / Artistic Focus / Visual Arts ($ 3,855)
For my March 2016 exhibition at Nationale, a gallery, shop, and performance space on Southeast Division Street in Portland, I will be working on my first solo show since becoming a father in 2013. The project currently consists of small black & white paintings on canvas that explore my present day-to-day life as an artist and young father with a full-time day job. Like most of my past work, they tell individual stories that are all part of a larger personal and reflective narrative. The final body of work presented will consist of 12 professionally framed acrylic paintings. The framing is key to my conceptual vision for the exhibition, as each frame will be sprayed a different color to match a certain detail in each painting. I will also produce a catalog in conjunction with the show that will include personal writings, reproductions of the work, and an essay by a commissioned writer. There will be a public reception at the gallery, an artist talk and conversation with the Assistant Director, and a private tour of the exhibition with a Q&A for students of PNCA (my alma mater).

Elizabeth Malaska / When We Dead Awaken II / Artistic Focus / Visual Arts ($ 4,612)
When We Dead Awaken II is an exhibition of paintings by myself, Elizabeth Malaska, to debut at Nationale in September of 2016. Nationale is a gallery, shop, and performance space located in southeast Portland. The show will consist of eight paintings on canvas: three large scale, two medium scale, three small scale.
The main themes of this body of work are a reexamination of the nude female body in the history of painting and a critique of the current global culture of patriarchal aggression. These issues are addressed in the work through subject matter, specific use of materials, and strategic employment of technique. I began this body of work in the winter of 2013. The first installment of seven paintings was presented at Nationale in November, 2014. In Winter, 2017 I will show the entire series (parts I and II) at PCC Sylvania Campus’ North View Gallery. The upcoming Nationale show will include a public reception. I will also host a gallery talk open to the community, and two lectures with student groups from OCAC and PNCA. All talks will take place in situ at Nationale.

3|3|3: TODD JOHNSON | ELIZABETH MALASKA | STEPHEN SLAPPE

Image: Detail of a debut installation by Stephen Slappe, 2015. OUR PEACE is a 4-channel immersive video environment created from documentary footage captured in Portland, Oregon.

Image: Detail of a debut installation by Stephen Slappe, 2015. OUR PEACE is a 4-channel immersive video environment created from documentary footage captured in Portland, Oregon.

Nationale is pleased to announce that represented artist Elizabeth Malaska is included in 3|3|3, an exhibition curated by Cris Moss at White Box. Please join us this First Thursday, December 3, for the reception.

3|3|3
Todd Johnson | Elizabeth Malaska | Stephen Slappe
December 1 – December 19, 2015
First Thursday Opening Reception, 6:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

White Box  is pleased to present 3|3|3. This exhibition features painting, video, and photography by Todd Johnson, Elizabeth Malaska, and Stephen Slappe. Each artists’ work occupies one of the three galleries in the White Box. The exhibition runs for three weeks.

Todd Johnson is an experimental and conceptual photographer living and working in Portland, Oregon. His photographic work uses abstract metaphor, social critique, dark humor and personal narrative. Johnson received his MFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. Todd is the founder and director of Black Box Gallery. Recent solo exhibitions include: The Misadventures of Ansel Adams: Garage Sales, Geotracking and General Tomfoolery at The Art Gym at Marylhurst University; Dangerous Territory at Pacific Northwest College of Art; and Malt Liquor and Cold Cuts at False Front Gallery.

Elizabeth Malaska’s paintings, with their dramatic juxtaposition of subject, material, and technique dispel normative readings, while also warning against the impending apocalypse of global complacency. Coupled with the artificiality of her statuesque female figures and geometric settings, they transition from everyday narratives into urgent allegories. Malaska earned her MFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally at various institutions including Portland’s Nationale, Froelick Gallery, Disjecta, Portland Center Stage, and San Francisco’s California College of the Arts, where she also received her BFA. She was named a finalist for The Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant and the Fine Arts Work Center fellowship in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Malaska is a recent recipient of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund’s Money for Women Grant. Malaska lives and works in Portland, Oregon, where she is represented by Nationale.

Stephen Slappe, an artist based in Portland, Oregon. Utilizing video and subversive installations, Slappe creates work that critiques technology and society’s inherent reliance on it. Viewers become immersed in environments where the parallel lines of reality and perceived social media become blurred. Slappe’s work has exhibited and screened internationally in venues such as Centre Pompidou-Metz, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s TBA Festival, The Horse Hospital (London), The Sarai Media Lab (New Delhi), Consolidated Works (Seattle), Centre for Contemporary Art (Glasgow), and Artists Television Access (San Francisco). His projects have been funded by multiple grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council of Portland and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. Slappe actively organizes video and film exhibitions including Subduction Zone at The Front (New Orleans) and Out of the Great Northwest at The Horse Hospital (London). His most recent project is an iOS app, titled 8, available on iTunes.

BACKROOM MINI "REMODEL"

Happy Monday from the backroom!

Happy Monday from the backroom!

A big thank you to Katie Behel for gifting us a large pedestal/storage box. It was a great excuse to move pieces around on the walls and reveal yet another version of the backroom gallery. More information about older pieces can be found on our "COLLECTING" page.

 

GET YOUR BIDS ON!

So proud of our 8 represented artists (+ Jeffrey Kriksciun) for their generous donations to the upcoming Disjecta Auction happening next Saturday, November 14. Start bidding now via Paddle8 for the pieces featured on the live auction and see you in a couple weeks for the big night...

ELIZABETH MALASKA IN HOLDING SWAY AT PNCA