Miranda J. Mallinson
The Wall Gallery,
Vancouver
Aug 18, 2001 - Aug 31,
2001
 Miranda J. Mallinson, still life with bocconcini (2000), watercolour on paper |
Vancouver artist Miranda Mallinson originally trained in painting and printmaking at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where she graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts in 1984. Her interest in the decorative arts is distinctly evident in this series of unique and visually complex still lifes. Densely patterned with high-contrast figurative shapes, they have the look and colouration of 1930s woodblock prints.
Relatively small in scale, they are dramatically quiet. The current work reflects her interest in found pieces of glass and china, which she has collected for what she calls their "treasure like quality". Mallinson obviously has an abundant appreciation of the surface patterns of everyday manufactured objects. The focus of these paintings is on patterns she observed in china shards and old scraps of linoleum.
Painted as if the patterns are viewed from a top-down perspective, the images have a flattened appearance that gives them their print-like quality. But rather than feeling static, the integration of designs and ornamentation from the china and linoleum creates rich visual kaleidoscopes. The whirling compositions make viewing both a pleasure and a tease.
© Mia Johnson