Malden Contemporary curated by Sand T in 2006

This is an archive page for MALDEN Contemporary Exhibition curated by Sand T

THOUGHTS ON CONTEMPORARY MALDEN:
A HOTBED FOR THE ARTS IN THE MAKING

November 2006

In our recent interview, artists having participated in "MALDEN Contemporary" exhibit curated by SAND T were asked to talk about the selected work showing in the inaugural exhibit at Gallery at Elm Street in Malden. These artists were also asked how they envision the Malden artist’s community in 5 years (in 2011). Let’s hear what they have to say about
this hotbed for the ARTS in the making right here in Malden.

at the reception... Chuck Stigliano(center) talks about his sculptures with a visitor (right) and Stephanie Mahan Stigliano (right). Chuck Stigliano is the chair of the Fine Arts 3-D Department at Massachusetts College of Art and has been teaching at the Sculpture department for 22 years. He moved to Malden with his wife Stephanie in 1991.

The artistic face of Malden has changed significantly over the past years and has gained a lot of attention not only in Malden, but from the greater Boston area as well. As a result of our Mayor Howard’s commitment to promoting the Arts, a gallery in the Mayor’s office was created in 2003, two artists studios were established downtown: IDEAS 5 in 2004 and SoHo Art Center in 2005. A conversion project of the old Sacred Heart Convent into an artist live-work building is also in the works. The convent project is led by Deborah Burke and Stephen Wishoski of the Malden Redevelopment Authority. (Article to Share: Lofts Plans: Artist Studio-homes hit the Market in Malden by Amanda Mantone Linehan/Malden Observer, October 2008)

“Artists who I’ve had a chance to work with have expressed their admiration of how supportive our City is for the arts. They have also expressed their interest in moving to Malden and that can be attributable to our burgeoning artists’ community,” says Sand T, who has been volunteering and collaborating with local non-profit organizations and artists on art initiatives since she moved to Malden in 2000. “I foresee more art professionals and art lovers alike considering moving to, working in, or visiting Malden; perhaps more enthusiastic individuals will become inspired and take leads in organizing new art initiatives in the coming years.”

Sand T presents three mixed media illuminated sculptures made of plexi panel and wood. The pieces attempt to explore the conscious and subconscious, spaces of intimacy and immensity, dream and reality. “I’m particularly interested in looking into the substance of transformation, implicating the ever-evolving and changing path of our life journey and new creations and interpretations which signify our use of words and images to translate and communicate our thoughts to others,” said Sand T, who is also the curator of MALDEN Contemporary.

Michelle “Steve” McCauley moved to Malden with her husband John Rodzvilla about two years ago. “Our first experience with Malden was participating in a show at artSPACE@16 gallery. Knowing that there were the seeds of a strong art community here was definitely an incentive to move beyond the typical artist-friendly areas of Somerville and Cambridge.”

McCauley is also one of the many dedicated volunteers for the Window Arts Malden project which showcased artwork by 40 Malden artists this past September in downtown business storefronts. “It is an exciting project because it brings art out of the usual designated space of a gallery into the public view. I hope that this project, along with the opening of Gallery at Elm Street, will bring more artists into Malden and strengthen the community.” McCauley said.

McCauley shows her latest series of mixed media works on paper, “Dreaming of Teeth”, in MALDEN Contemporary. This series of drawings presents stylized versions of mouths and teeth. The disembodied mouths in the pieces remind viewers of the menacing grin of a clown, or perhaps the bared teeth of an angry dog. The artist invites viewers to contemplate - “Are these smiles forced through smeared lipstick or a fat bloody lip? Is this a delusion of ecstasy or a nightmare?”

Award winner cartoonist Ignatius M. Dedd has been cartooning professionally for over fifteen years. He has been publishing Dead Guy. The Cartoon. online since January 2005 located at http://deadguylives.blogspot.com. Currently working in education, Mr. Dedd uses the traditional comic strip as a medium for edgy commentary on social, political and personal issues.

Dedd has been creating all his cartoon strips in his home studio in Malden. Dead Guy. The Cartoon. received the prestigious Best of Blogs award for Most Humorous Blog of 2005 and has been featured on TV38's Morning Show, the Malden Observer, and has been published in several New York newspapers and national magazines.

"I envison Malden becomming a place aspiring artists -- whether new to the area, or recent graduates from a local school -- will see as a logical place to come. Rather than something completely new springing up, I see the current artist structure in Malden growing, and a variety of new places to see and hear art - as well as businesses that cater to this activity -- thriving. " Dedd says.

Amy Morrison, a full time faculty in the undergraduate art therapy program at Lesley University, shows a site specific installation Attachment and Separation. Her installation consists of multiple pod and ladle-like structures. The main materials she utilized in creating these structures include, wire, paper, beeswax, and potting soil. Morrison says, “Ladles scoop up a substance and often relocate it, pods allow for incubation, growth and stirring within. The ladle pods and the materials they consist of elicit themes such as holding, unraveling, connecting, creating distance and strengthening bonds.” The subtleness in her monochromatic piece is truly entrancing.

A resident of ten years, Amy Morrison has been creating artwork in her home studio, and recently obtained a new studio in Somerville. She has enjoyed the awakening of the arts in Malden. “In particular visiting artSPACE@16, which has continued to exhibit new and intriguing work as well as offering a space for artists to build community.” Morrison said, “I view the opening of this new gallery, Gallery at Elm Street, to be a positive step in continuing to strengthen support for the arts and the artist community in Malden. My hope is that the next five years will bring more opportunities for artists in terms of available live/work space, exhibition venues and places to gather.”

( Visit Listings of Community, Arts and Cultural Venues in Malden.)

Living, Working And Creating In Malden
– Make It Happen The Present Time.

"There are many talented artists in Malden who deserve recognition in their own community. Malden has already begun to showcase art equivalent to, if not more integral, than the galleries on Newbury Street and in the South End," says exhibiting artist Kurt Gilbert Wahlstrom, browsing through the exhibition binder with Pamela Priztker during the grand opening of Malden Contemporary at Gallery at Elm Street.

Kurt Gilbert Wahlstrom is a filmmaker, video artist and musician who has lived in Malden for two years. He is a member of MATV where he recently exhibited a video piece called (project kuret!. Wahlstrom also produced the most recent “Gallery Spotlight” program for MATV, which featured painter Bartek Walicki, one of the artists in MALDEN Contemporary.

Wahlstrom who has recently received a first place award in the "Entertainment Variety" category in the Hometown Video Festival, a national community media competition, says that, "Any community can achieve a level of artistic strength with the help of its leaders, as we have here in Malden. It takes not only people to begin a movement but also time, energy and talent. Just one or a few passionate individuals have the ability to create, change, revolutionize, reveal and grow an artistic community."

Wahlstrom envisions that, "the Malden art community can quickly beginning to float to the surface of which the Cambridge and Somerville communities have reached. Malden is recognized as a growing cultural and artistic community and with time will soon be a place many travel to, to spend time at its exhibits and events."

His video work seeks to investigate and describe his suburban family through critical, nostalgic, ambivalent, and loving subjectivity. “I explore the family “characters” by creating discomfort, and through mimicking and trading roles and identities. Our daily tasks and situations become performances for the camera. Kuret & Dad: new [musical] works on video (2006) in MALDEN Contemporary, focuses on an interaction with my father through costume in an unrehearsed, improvisational session of music fictionally narrated by mom (music critic).” Wahlstrom said.

“It is a great time to be an artist living in Malden.” Says Erik Pettersen, “My involvement in the local art scene started when I was included in the “MALDEN ART NOW 2003” juried by Stephanie Mahan Stigliano at artSPACE@16. Since then, I have been in several shows, including a premier exhibit “MALDEN ARTISTS: NEW WORKS” at the Mayor’s Gallery.”

At Gallery at Elm Street, Pettersen shows sixteen small scale cityscape oil paintings that border between representation and abstraction. “Each subject of my paintings is a diary of my travels in life. The idea of cityscapes came from looking out toward my back yard in Malden, which overlooks the city of Boston. The city is alive; it breathes and pulsates, filled with energy.” The dynamic use of color and tactile quality in Pettersen’s paintings serve to trick the eye and play upon traditional rules of perspective.

Pettersen says that over the past couple of years the art community has become more visible and many area artists are displaying their work. He continues, "The future of Malden will be prosperous. I would like to see more galleries and outlets for art open to inspire others to participate. Over time Malden will grow and become a center among the art community bringing in more artist, small businesses, galleries, studio spaces. I am glad to be part of a city that embraces creativity and supports artists of all kinds.”

Young artist Ian Morrison posing with his fatherGordon.

Gordon Morrison is a computer security and network specialist who is passionate in exploring mediums and artistic ideas in his home studio in Malden. The Morrisons (Gordon, Amy and Ian) have collaborated on an art installation “In the Woods Surrounding” exploring individual and shared perceptions within a family’s experience of a single event, it was presented at MATV Gallery recently.

Morrison is very optimistic about the future of the Malden art community, he said, “The Malden Arts community has a great opportunity ahead of it in the next 5 years. Currently that community is primarily visual artists, but they have built a lot of momentum, and if that continues to build, performing artists, poets, and others will not be far behind. If Malden starts to develop venues that support a variety of arts, I think there is enough enthusiasm in its residents to turn Malden into a city that people come to for culture, much as they go to Cambridge or Boston or Somerville today.”

In Malden Contemporary, Morrison shows two of his latest mixed media sculptural pieces that explore the themes of perception and relationship, filtered through the everyday technologies which silently shape our lives. Morrison said, “I hope to create moments of surprise, realization and discovery by the juxtaposition of idea and media.” One of the pieces, "Relationship/Network/Web" composed of test tubes, telephone wire supported by a wood and copper infrastructure, “is an attempt to elaborate on the complex web of memory and context which defines individuals and their relationships that in turn define a community.”

Douglas Weathersby is the owner and operator of ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES in Malden – a cleaning and home repair company which encompasses both the artist’s livelihood and art practice. “Formless”, an atmospherically stunning video piece by Weathersby is showing in Malden Contemporary. It is a documentary video shot on location while the artist cleaning a tool shed.

“I consider all aspects of ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, from the documentary photos and video to the working process to the relationship between the client and me as service provider, to be an art enterprise.” Weathersby, the winner of the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston’s Annual Prize Winner of 2003 said, “My aim is to call into question perceptions of boundaries both social and perceptual. How do we differentiate between light and dark, clean and dirty, art and life, process and product, form and formless.”

“I make my work exist in many different forms at once, cleaning as performance as meditation, business as conceptual art, exhibition as advertisement, installation as drawing as functional work.” He provides us with fresh perspectives on our living and working space through his environmentally mindful work.

Volunteering Efforts Help to Bring Current
Work Created By Local Artists

"Volunteering for Sand T's art project at the First Parish of Malden felt like the right thing to do. We've always admired Sand T for her genuine interest in art and her strong desire to have it available to the public. Her aspiration to promote local artists, including us, will go forever appreciated. Nina and I were asked by Sand T to volunteer with the construction of walls and pedestals for the gallery at First Parish. Most of our labor consisted of spackling, sanding and painting. I also helped Rev. Horst to rip out an old podium which was in the way of this new exhibition space. I enjoyed very much lending a hand in this ambitious project. I feel that it is necessary to promote the local arts. Both Nina and I served as gallery ambassadors for the “MALDEN Contemporary” grand opening. We helped by handing out exhibition flyers, price lists, encouraging guests to sign on to mailing list, and introducing guests to others. I found the whole experience rejuvenating, as did Nina. My personal favorite was the artist talk, where I had a chance to explain my ideas to the enormous crowd. The whole experience with the public was interactive and educational. The fact that the show received many reviews speaks of the significance of promotion and the arising interest in the local arts. I found the whole experience fulfilling, and I hope that the community did, too." - Bartek Walicki.

Currently teaching drawing and printmaking at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, Bartek Walicki is among the many dedicated artist-volunteers who have put in numerous hours in spackling, sanding and painting the walls and pedestals for Gallery at Elm Street this past summer.

Walicki shows two drawings inspired by his interest in rhythm, pattern, humor as well as cartoon imagery, poster art and graphic design. According to Walicki, “The content is derived from images of military technology and the general humanitarian situation in the Middle East and Africa. Images of violence, explosions and air attacks mingle with stylized depictions of bombs and figures.” The simplicity of the palette - green tones, black, white, hint of silver, has allowed for greater clarity and creatively in mark making.

Carolina Pachon presenting her work.

In Malden Contemporary, Carolina Pachon shows four of her latest color saturated, high contrast paintings inspired by the patterned fabrics of contemporary and ancient interior wall decorative art. The result is jubilating. The colors scream their celebratory sensation in the interior spaces Pachon has created.

Carolina Pachon found Malden to be very receptive to artists with a lively artist community. Pachon is also one of the enthusiastic artist-volunteers for MALDEN Contemporary and artSPACE@16. “We are glad that we decided to move here,” says Pachon. Soon after moving to Malden, they have become regular attendees of the Malden Sketch Group's Monday drawing sessions at the Oak Grove Community Building.

"I am positive about the Malden arts community doing great in the coming years. I can see it taking off really soon, and becoming a center for the arts in the surrounding communities. As friendly as it is, with so many artists living there, and great exhibition spaces, it is a great community for artists to share ideas and art lovers to feel comfortable learning about and appreciating art. I think Malden has some key players in it's artistic development without whom it would not have as bright of a future as it holds!" Pachon says.

Mary Elizabeth van der Cross is primarily a fiber artist, investigating the possibilities of knitting as an art form. She became a resident of Malden for romantic reasons in 1992. “I’m really excited about Malden becoming an epicenter for art!” Van der Cross who has volunteered as a Gallery Ambassador for Gallery at Elm Street said, “I am looking forward to becoming further involved with Malden arts community.”

In MALDEN Contemporary, van der Cross shows two pieces which represent her current major interests: Scientific Research and Spiritualism/Mysticism. One of her two, her Vaccinations Against, a piece consisting of five Petri dishes on a tray. Inside are knitted ‘vaccines’ to protect us from: Corporations, the Hair Club for Men, Vice Presidents with Guns, Encryption and Imagination, which, the artist notes, “was specially funded by Halliburton – but, as the vaccination failed, imagination will, hopefully, continue to thrive”.

John Rodzvilla, who maintains a studio in his Malden home says that, “My wife and I decided to move to Malden two years ago from Jamaica Plain after having pieces accepted for a show at artSPACE@16.” “We are intrigued by the burgeoning art scene in the area and the general feel of the city.” Rodzvilla and his wife, Steve Michelle McCauley, both have volunteered for Gallery at Elm Street.

“The friendliness and openness of the art community in Malden made it very easy to get involved. Since moving I have volunteered with Windows Art Malden. With the support of the Mayor's office and local businesses I think the arts community in Malden will continue to grow very quickly. The growing presence of galleries such as artSPACE@16, The Mayor’s Gallery, MATV Gallery, Galleries at the Library, Commerce Place exhibition space and the Gallery at Elm Street in downtown Malden, as well as the Window Arts Malden project is helping bring more attention to the art community in Malden.”

Rodzvilla shows "Echoes” in Malden Contemporary, his latest series of drawings on vellum. They are mash-up of mechanical diagrams, botanical drawings and ornamental designs. The finished pieces carry only hints of what images were used, being, in a very literal sense, an echo of the original. Rodzvilla says, “Everything gets mashed together to help create a space for the line to move and undulate and grow. The focus is on how line creates its own pattern and rhythm.”

Stigliano Mahan Stigliano is a long time Malden art supporter who has been involved and volunteering in the Malden artists community for 15 years. She was a former board member of the Malden Cultural Council, she also volunteered in producing the “Gallery Spotlight” program for MATV Gallery for two years.

Stigliano has created plaster casting and mold- making sample pieces to teach students, inspiring her to further develop the fossil-like pieces on display in MALDEN Contemporary. The surface of the plaster is reminiscent of museum casts and molds made of things unearthed from the past. Stigliano has said that, “With these books, the inside page spread has the two halves of the image: right and left, raised and recessed; shown together.” The sound of the turning pages fitting neatly together is rather solid and satisfying. The unconventional weight and sense of the material creates a special experience apart from the traditionally bound book. With her new work, she has challenged us with her ideas, and pushed us to think outside the book.

Stigliano commented that in the past five years Malden has emerged as a gathering place for artists, due to a number of factors. "artSPACE@16, the Mayor's Gallery and the City's initiative to revitalize the downtown through the arts, the galleries at the Library, the Window Arts Malden (WAM), the MATV Gallery and "Gallery Spotlight" program, the Exchange Street Bistro and the Commerce Place displaying local art, these art venues and art initiatives have each built one upon the other to create a growing structure to the cultural community in Malden." Stigliano hopes that the bonds forged in the art community continue to strengthen. " I look forward to the day when Malden can have its own Open Studio event.

Pamela Sheridan moderating the gallery talk.

Pamela Sheridan was born in Malden and has lived in the surrounding cities such as Melrose and Wakefield for most of her life. She is currently a student at Montserrat College of Art and working as a personal trainer, nutritionist, and aerobics instructor at the Malden YMCA.

“Malden is developing into a real artist’s community. Where there is art, there is a sense of awareness, openness, and growth. In the past few years I have seen this growth and it is really exciting to be part of it, I was born in Malden and I finally feel like I fit,” Sheridan says. Commenting on her role as moderator for the Malden Contemporary gallery talk, “This is something I’ve never done before. Although I struggle with stage fright and shyness, this seemed to disappear. It was quite an experience for me.”

In Malden Contemporary, Sheridan shows an eight-foot tall sculpture entitled PARADOX. The work is full of vitality and movement. Sheridan succeeds in portraying the energy of life’s paradox in this astonishing sculpture through the use of barbed wire, brightly colored embroidery chord, beads, paper mache’ and acrylic paint - with lots of wonderful surprises throughout this work.

Sheridan who has just become involved with the local art scene, envisions that, “The children of Malden will really reap the benefits of growing up around the arts. Not only will they become more aware of the world around them, they will also gain self-awareness and the gift of self-expression that only the arts can give.”

To learn more about what’s happening in this hotbed for the arts in the making, please visit:

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We would like to express our utmost gratitude...

This exhibition, "MALDEN Contemporary", has been made possible in part by a grant from Malden Cultural Council. Additional contributions from artSPACE@16, MaldenMuse.com, Malden Access Television, MaldenHomePage.com and local newspapers have been essential in realizing this production.

We would like to express our utmost gratitude to these individuals who have made possible the creation of Gallery at Elm Street through their devoted volunteer efforts: Marie Coulanges, Michael Dembowski, Paul DeVellis, Roanna E. Forman, Rev. David M. Horst, Domnica Horst-Loy, Eaden Huang, Wes Kalloch, Wayne MacKay,
Wayne MacKay, Jr., M. Steve McCauley, Chris Morse, James Murphy, Carolina Pachon, John Rodzvilla,
Pamela Sheridan, Sand T, Joseph Turner, Mary Elizabeth van der Cross, Bartek Walicki and Erik Whitehurst.

Click here to go back to MALDEN Contemporary exhibition page

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