Friday, January 18, 5:30–7:30pm
Galleria Malgré, Aldama 59A
free

Work by Pamela Green - opening

by Margaret Paul

Starting January 18, artist Pamela Green will once again exhibit her work at the Galleria Malgré.

Green’s colorful, nonrepresentational paintings are at once playful, frequently serious, and sometimes dark. She has a sophisticated command of color and form, reflecting her many years of experience and her ongoing experimental approach. She compares her approach to the Japanese literary form Zuihitsu (“following the brush”), in which the author begins writing without a predetermined goal. By allowing the brush to guide her, Green experiences the act of painting as a process of discovery.

As an art student, Green studied with Benton Spruance, a pioneer in American lithography. He, along with artists of the 50s and 60s such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, were strong influences.

By the mid-’70s, Green was living in Tokyo. For five years, she absorbed a totally different esthetic there. Her keenest interest was in mingei (Japanese folk art), especially the utilitarian pottery of the seventeenth to nineteenth century. These interests deepened upon her return to Japan in the late ’80s. The spontaneity and minimal use of line, combined with the use of often haphazard surfaces, have influenced her to this day.

Starting in the early ’80s, Green worked in the field of American antiques. Her greatest interest was in American folk art, often finding parallels with Japanese mingei objects. In addition, the works of American “outsider artists,” especially those hailing from the South—with their untrained, spirited naïveté yet deep spirituality—had tremendous influence. This led her into the study of African art, especially fetish objects.

Much like early Rauschenberg and some “outsider” works, the African Fetish sculptures, with their adornment and encrusted surfaces—often covered in nails, mud, beads, hemp, and other materials—had a profound influence on her. Living in San Miguel de Allende the last three years has further inspired Green’s love of gritty surfaces, as evidenced by her latest work.

Green’s paintings can be found in private collections here as well as in Asia, Europe, Africa, and many cities in the United States.