Julia Malakoff

 

 

Layers of Living Memory: A Review of Julia Malakoff’s “The Poetry of Everyday Things”

 

By Annie Przypyszny

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Annieprzypyszny.com

 

Julia Malakoff’s latest solo show, “The Poetry of Everyday Things” takes the broad and layered memories of a life, and revives them into new, dynamic manifestations. In Malakoff’s show, the clutter of meaningful living is captured in “curated corners” of mixed-media collage, where whimsy, warmth, and color are welcome with open arms. Delight and wonder abound in works of art that don’t shy away from play; Malakoff doesn’t simply present us with her past, but revitalizes it, contextualizes it, and imbues it with her distinctly jubilant flair. The show is dedicated to Malakoff’s late parents and her upbringing in Iowa City, giving the objects portrayed a tender gravity as well as an aesthetic appreciation: “all of my work is a celebration of living a life filled with joy,” Malakoff states.

 

What stands out in Malakoff’s work is its unapologetic vibrance. Her playful use of bright colors and palpable textures recalls post-impressionist artists such as Matisse, whose work Malakoff sees as “an expression of a love for life.” Like Matisse, Malakoff “aspires to use colors to tell stories,” to shape the “vignettes” she portrays in her pieces. This audacious use of bold hues and the way Malakoff contrasts them keeps her compositions from being reduced to mere ‘still life.’ While her art contains intentionally arranged scenes akin to that of the still life tradition, Malakoff’s eclectic stylistic choices “convey a sense warmth in the work,” allowing her to portray the objects “as if they have a life-like energy.”

 

In addition to Matisse, Malakoff finds profound inspiration from another artist: her mother. In “The Poetry of Everyday Things,” She recalls how, as a photographer, her mother would “layer her negatives in our home-based darkroom,” which Malakoff recognizes as “a catalyst to help me think about working in paper layers at an early age.” In “Reflections,” Malakoff’s photos of Iowa scenery are featured amid a background of striped patterns that allude to the photos themselves, combining both the crisp memories that snapshots capture with the blurriness of the recollection in between. Her series of four “Home Grown” pieces also incorporate photography, as well as some miniature prints of Malakoff’s other work and a sample of handwriting from her great grandmother and namesake, Julia Tabas. The scrapbook-like elements of the series transform ephemera into a display of metamemory.

 

Malakoff also pays tribute to her mother’s work in pottery, with many of her artworks featuring vases and vessels. Malakoff recalls how her mother “played with glazes, and created her own textures and patterns, often drawing florals into the glazes” --- a process Malakoff replicates in the cardboard vases featured in many of her show’s works, including her “Paper Flowers” triptych. The textures carved into the painted cardboard give extra dimension to the scene; Malakoff described her process of adding etchings as often being instinctual, giving them a quality of organic exuberance.

 

The appreciation for artisan vases is complimented in Malakoff’s work by the incorporation of plants and flowers, “another nod to [her] life in Iowa City,” where her family “had a giant vegetable garden, inspired by the fields of corn, soybeans, and Midwest produce.” Both of Malakoff’s parents had “green thumbs,” and as she grew up, the rooms of their home were filled with various flora. Like a real-life garden, the foliage in Malakoff’s painting is layered, sometimes even palimpsestic: in “Garden Musings” you can see the imprint of larger sunflowers underneath the final image. Candid elements such as this capture what it means to continually reinterpret memory, the way our past changes shape each time we look at it anew.

 

The significance of objects and mementos in Malakoff’s work goes beyond mere appreciation and nostalgia, however. “My hope is that the more I put [objects] into my work, the less attached I will feel when the time comes where the objects and me will need to part ways.” Malakoff recognizes that the things of our lives are transient. Still, her work immortalizes these objects and their memories, in a manner not dissimilar to the Elizabethan tradition of immortalizing the mortal beloved through a poem. Malakoff’s work contains optimism and vivacity, but also mindfulness. The objects she represents are beautiful, but her work shows that it’s the people and places they call to mind that give them their value. What Malakoff desires most of all is for her work and what it represents to have a lifting impact on others. “I make a concerted effort to put my energy into making our world a better place by creating art that can connect people in a positive way,” she says. Although based around memory, “The Poetry of Everyday Things” isn’t trapped in the past. Instead, Malakoff uses the treasured moments of her life to envision a bright and worthwhile future.

 

Website:

www.juliamalakoff.com