| |
AWARDS
 |
2007
2005
1997
1995 |
Ella Jackson Chair, Castle Hill
Center for the Arts, Truro, Mass.
Artist’s Resource Trust grant, a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Foundation,
Massachusetts
Juror’s Award, Painting and Sculpture National, San Jacinto College, Houston;
Howard Fox, juror
Juror’s Award, Small Works, Washington Square East Gallery, New York City;
Jacquie Littlejohn, juror |
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
|
2008
2007
2006
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1996
1995 |
Contemplating the Horizontal Arden Gallery,
Boston
Hue Again Schlosberg Gallery, Montserrat College of Art,
Beverly, Mass.
(Curators: Leonie Bradbury and Shana Dumont)
Silk Road OK Harris Works of Art, New York City
It’s Always About Hue, Isn’t It? Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
Heat of the Moment Arden Gallery, Boston
Pure Color Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
10 Years of Encaustic Painting Winfisky Gallery, Salem State
College, Salem, Mass.
New Paintings in Encaustic Arden Gallery, Boston
New Paintings Simon Gallery, Morristown, New Jersey
New Paintings Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
New Paintings Arden Gallery, Boston
Mudra: New Paintings Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
Uttar: New Paintings Simon Gallery, Morristown
New Encaustic Paintings Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
New Encaustic Paintings Arden Gallery, Boston
Verso: Thought, Breath, Memory Espace Gallery, Manila, Philippines
New Paintings Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Linear Perspectives OK Harris Works of Art, New York City
New Paintings in Encaustic Stephen Haller Gallery, New
York City |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
|
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978 |
GeoMetrics II Gallery
128, New York City (Curator: Gloria Klein)
Castle Hill at the Provincetown (Mass.) Art
Association and Museum, Hoffman Gallery
Love, Lust and Desire McGowan Fine Art,
Concord, New Hampshire
Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Adler & Co.
Gallery, San Francisco
4th
Anniversary Exhibition - dm Contemporary,
Mill Neck, NY
Art Now Fair NY -30/30
Hotel – dm Contemporary
Material Color Hunterdon
Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey (Curator: Mary Birmingham)
No Chromophobia OK Harris Works of Art,
New York City (Curator: Richard Witter)
Small Wonder Garson Baker Fine Art, New
York City
Relative Geometries Conrad Wilde Gallery,
Tucson
Gifts from the Studio Kenise Barnes Fine
Art, Larchmont, New York
This Just in Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Calculated Color Higgins Art Gallery, Barnstable,
Mass. (Curator: Jane Lincoln)
A Breath of Fresh Air Kenise
Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
Holiday Argazzi Art, Lakeville, Connecticut
Art Now Fair New York City, Invited by DM
Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Adler & Co.
Gallery, San Francisco
Art Now Fair Miami – dm Contemporary
Punchbowl Metaphor
Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, New York
The Blogger Show Agni Gallery, New York
City (Organizer: John Morris)
Gigantic Small Works Show Rosenfeld Gallery,
Philadelphia
The Fusion Project June Fitzpatrick Gallery,
Portland, Maine
Encaustic Invitational Conrad Wilde Gallery,
Tucson
Art Now Fair Miami Beach, invited by DM
Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
Red Dot Fair Miami Beach, invited by Arden
Gallery, Boston
Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Adler and
Co. Gallery, San Francisco
Red Dot Fair New York, invited by Kenise
Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
Neo Plastic Redux Elizabeth Harris Gallery,
New York City (Organizer: Miles Manning)
Gigantic Small Works Show Rosenfeld Gallery,
Philadelphia
Nancy
Manter, Joanne Mattera, Babe Shapiro - DM
Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
A Thing of Beauty and A Joy Forever Kenise
Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
Minimal Minimal Works Gallery, Philadelphia
Luminous Depths Ben Shahn Galleries, Wm.
Paterson University, Wayne, N.J.(Curator: Nancy Einreinhofer)
Order(ed) Siano Gallery, Philadelphia (Curator:
Julie Karabenick with essay by Roberta Fallon)
Flow Art Fair Miami Beach, invited by Kenise
Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
Art (212) Fair New York, invited by Marcia
Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Cervini
Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
What Did Puck Say? Heidi Cho Gallery, New
York City
Engaging the Structural Broadway Gallery,
New York City (Curator: Julie Karabenick)
Cooled and Collected: Modern Masters of
Contemporary Encaustic, Boon Gallery, Salem, Mass.
Wish You Were Here IV A.I.R. Gallery, New
York City
Color Theory Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn,
New York (Curator: Kenise Barnes)
Wax Art Brush Gallery, Lowell, Mass. (Curator:
E. Linda Poras)
Works On Paper Invitational Cervini Haas
Gallery, Scottsdale
Wax Works McGowan Fine Arts, Concord, New
Hampshire
AAF Contemporary Fair New York, invited
by Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Color Theory Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont,
New York
Unbound: Selected Artists from ‘The Art of Encaustic
Painting’ R&F
Gallery, Kingston, New York (Curator: Laura Moriarty)
Four New York Artists Patrick Olson Gallery,
Plymouth, Michigan
AAF Contemporary Fair New York, invited
by Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Encaustic Now II Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Wish You Were Here Too A.I.R. Gallery,
New York City
The Way of Wax Winfisky Gallery at Salem
State College, Salem, Mass.
Serenity Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
AAF Contemporary Fair New York, Thatcher
Projects, New York City
Art Santa Fe Invited by Cervini Haas Gallery,
Scottsdale
Tickled Pink Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Art Miami Invited by Arden Gallery, Boston
Work on Paper Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Lush Abstraction Melanee Cooper Gallery,
Chicago
Hot Wax Cummings Art Center at Connecticut
College, New London
Artcetera Boston Center for the Arts, Boston
Works on Paper Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
The Postcard Show A.I.R. Gallery, New York
City
Water Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
Enkaustikos: Wax As a Contemporary Medium Pentimenti
Gallery, Philadelphia
Centering Sonoma Museum of Visual Art,
Santa Rosa, California
Generations III A.I.R. Gallery, New York
City
AAF Contemporary Fair New York, Thatcher
Projects, New York City
Art San Francisco Invited by Newzones Gallery,
Calgary, Canada
Encaustic Now Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Encaustic Works Arden Gallery, Boston
The Art of Encaustic Painting Cervini Haas
Gallery, Scottsdale
Encaustic: Joanne Mattera and Friends Melanee
Cooper Gallery, Chicago
Big Painting Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
Deck the Walls Newzones Gallery, Calgary
Constant Aesthetic Stephen Haller Gallery,
New York City
Generations II: A Survey of Women Artists at the
Millennium A.I.R Gallery, New York City
Aesthetic Boundaries Stephen Haller Gallery,
New York City
The Other Side and This Side: The Art of Italian
and Italian-American
Women Casa Italiana, New York City
Pieces IV Gallery 128, New York City (Curator:
Sylvia Netzer)
Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America Knoxville
(Tenn.) Museum of Art
Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America Montclair
(N.J.) Art Museum (Curator: Gail Stavitsky)
Signs, Codes and Surfaces Stephen Haller
Gallery, New York City
Pieces III Gallery 128, New York City (Curator:
Sylvia Netzer)
Los Angeles National Patricia Correia Gallery,
Santa Monica
Contemporary Wax Stephen Haller Gallery,
New York City
Small Works Washington Square East Gallery,
New York City
Generations A.I.R. Gallery, New York City
Ron Ehrlich, Gregory Johnston, Joanne Mattera, Hiro
Yokose Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Cultural Markers Stephen Haller Gallery,
New York City
1+1=3: Independent Artists, Collaborative Art Alicia Torres
Fine Art, New York City
Material Girls: Gender, Process and Abstract Art Since 1970 Gallery
128,
New York City (Curator: Harmony Hammond)
Inaugural Show Christine Adapon Gallery, Manila
Cultural Markers Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
Small Works Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
Virtuosity Art Fair The Armory, New York, invited by Stephen
Haller Gallery, New York City
Waxing Minimal: Joanne Mattera, Inger Sand Lee, Tom Sime Denise
Bibro Fine Art, New York City
Signs, Codes & Alphabets Tribeca 148, New York City
Small Works Washington Square East Gallery, New York City
93 Wishes for '94 Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York City
Small Works East West Cultural Center, New York City
Works on Paper Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Mass. (Curator:
Andre Emmerich)
Works on Paper Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta
Collage: Eleven Contemporary Artists Wheaton College, Norton,
Mass. (Curator: Pallas Lombardi)
Third Textile Biennial Savaria Museum, Szombatheley, Hungary
Five Artists: Process and Product Art Colloquium Gallery,
Salem, Mass.
Artist/Artisan Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach
Paper Hera Gallery, Providence
Paper: Metamorphoses Florence Duhl Gallery, New York City
Ninth International Biennale de la Tapisserie Musee des
Beaux Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
New Works Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York City
Small Works: An Invitational Touchstone Gallery, New York
City |
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
|
| |
The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey
University Libraries Collection, State University of New York at Albany
Wheaton College Gallery, Permanent Collection, Norton, Massachusetts
Alston & Bird, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Beacon Properties, Boston
Delta Airlines, Boston
McKee Nelson, New York City
Pacific Peninsula Group, Menlo Park, California
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Florham Park, New Jersey
R&F Paints, Kingston, New York
Red Wheel/Weiser Books, Boston
U.S. Embassies, Slovenia and Poland
Consulate of Brunei
Eduardo Calma Architecture, Makati City, Philippines
Private collections: United States, Canada, the Philippines |
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
|
2009
2007
2003
1993
1982 |
Blogpix,one of several curators,
Platform Project Space, New York City
50 Over 50, curator, online exhibition at Joanne Mattera
Art Blog
Luxe, Calme et Volupte’ curator, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
Thinking in Wax juror, Castle Hill Center for the Arts,
Truro, Mass.
The Whole Ball of Wax juror, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
Objects of Their Affection curator, InterArt Center, New
York City
Artists on the Grid curator, Svetlana Rockwell Gallery,
Cambridge |
ORGANIZED EVENTS
|
| |
Founder and Director, Annual Conference of Encaustic
Painting, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass.
Co-organizer, Art Bloggers @, an adhoc group of art bloggers that convenes around
the art fairs in Miami, New York and elsewhere |
ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS
|
| |
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; Visiting
Lecturer, 2D Fine Arts Department
Maine College of Art, Portland; Visiting Instructor, Department of Continuing
Studies |
VISITING ARTIST
|
2007 - 08
2007
2004
2002
1999 |
Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Cape
Cod, Massachusetts
Montana State University, Bozeman
Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts
Weissman Visiting Artist, Connecticut College, New London
State University of New York at Albany |
TALKS, PANELS
|
2009
2008
2007
2005
2004
2001
2000
1999 |
Moderator, panel in conjunction
with Blogpix at Platform Project Space, New York City
Moderator, Art Bloggers @ Red Dot, New York City, during
art fair week in March
Presenter, College Art Association, Dallas; "Finding
a Place for Yourself in
the Art World"
Speaker, Montana State University; "35 Years of More
or Less The Same Thing"
Keynote speaker, National Conference of Encaustic Painting,Montserrat
College of Art; "Almost Mainstream After 2000 Years"
Panelist, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine; "Encaustic
Painting"
Keynote Speaker, Art League of Northern California, Novato; "Building
and
Sustaining a Career in Art"
Speaker, The Brush Gallery, Lowell, Mass., "The Art
of Encaustic Painting"
Speaker, River Tree Center for the Arts, Kennebunk, Maine; "2000
Years of
Encaustic Painting"
Guest Lecturer, City College of New York; "Encaustic
Painting"
Guest Lecturer, R&F Gallery, Kingston, New York; Encaustic
Forum
Panelist, Ellis Island, New York City; "Contemporary
Italian-American
Women Artists"
Speaker, Casa Italiana, New York University, New York City; "Material
Influences"
Panelist, Artists Talk on Art, New York City; Encaustic
Painting
Panelist, Painter’s Forum, New York City; Encaustic Painting |
WRITING
|
Current
2007
2006
2005
2001
1981 - 83 |
Joanne
Mattera Artblog: reports, observations and opinions
Luxe,
Calme et Volupte: A Meditation on Visual Pleasure, essay for my
curated exhibition at the Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
"Exquisite Dualities: The Recent Paintings of Alexandre Masino," essay
"Material Witness: Silken Surfaces in Wax," essay of my work for
the
Surface Design Journal, Fall issue
"Encaustic: The ‘New’ Art Medium, Just 2000 Years Old," essay
for
"Luminous Depths" catalog and exhibition
"Dancing Shards: Between Order and Intuition," essay for Gloria
Klein
"Kevin
Frank: The World in a Still Life," essay
"Betsy Eby: Give and Take,"essay
"The Medium is the Message: Tracing the Arc Between Fiber and Wax,"
essay for sculptor Daniella Woolf
The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient
Medium of Pigmented Wax, Watson-Guptill, New York
Fiberarts, Editor in Chief
|
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - BOOKS
|
2005
2003
2001
2000
1999 |
Abstract Painting, Watson Guptill, 2005;
Vicky Perry
In Our Own Voices: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Italian
and Italian-American Women, Bordighera Press, 2003;
Elizabeth G. Messina, ed.
Spirit Maps, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2001; Joanna Arettam
Lesbian Art in America, Rizzoli, 2000; Harmony Hammond
Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America, 1999; The Montclair
Art Museum/Rutgers. University Press; Gail Stavitsky, editor |
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY - PERIODICALS
|
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999 - 1980 |
Berkshire Fine Arts, Boston's Newbury Street Galleries," Shawn
Hill; December 27
The Boston Globe, "Color Their World," Cate McQuaid; December 17
More magazine, "Art Beat," Alesha Hardwick-Whyte; October issue
The Boston Phoenix, "Waxing Poetic," Randi Hopkins; June 3
Provincetown Banner, "When Art Runs Hot and Cold," Melora B. North;
August 23
Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Spirit of Baudelaire, Matisse Flows," Debra
Wolf; July 8
The New York Sun, "Joanne Mattera: Silk Road at OK Harris," Maureen
Mullarkey; May 3
Phoenix Home and Garden, "Color Blocks," March
Maine Sunday Telegram, "Fusion: A Portland Encaustic Event," Philip
Isaacson, Feb. 18
Maine Sunday Telegram, "Stacks of Wax," Bob Keyes; February 11
Art New England, "Art Criticism on the Internet," Raymond
A. Liddell; December
Boston Globe, "A Clever Pairing," Cate McQuaid; September 14
Lowell Sun, "Whole Ball of Wax," Barbara Rizza Mellin; November
12
Art News, "How to Talk to An Artist," Gail Gregg; June
NY Arts, "Geometry Reloaded," Lilly Wei; April/May
Syracuse Post-Standard, "Color This Exhibit…," Katherine Rushworth;
May 15
NYArts, "On and Off the Grid: In Conversation with Joanne Mattera," Julie
Karabenick; Feb/March
New York Times, "‘Unbound: Selected Artists,"’ D. Dominick Lombardi;
Jan. 2
Boston Globe, "An Eyeful of Color," Cate McQuaid; December 10
Traditional Home, "A Fresh Shade of Bungalow," Eliot Nusbaum; Sept.
Arts Media, "Artists Wax Enthusiastic," Rachel Strutt; March
Boston Sunday Globe, "Critics’ Picks," Christine Temin; April
28
Boston Globe, "Critics’ Picks," Cate McQuaid; April 18
Arts Media, "Joanne Mattera: Paintings in Encaustic," Shawn Hill; April-May
IONS Review, Barbara McNeill, ed., portfolio; Issue 63, March-June
The Week, "Joanne Mattera at Arden Gallery, Boston," April 19
Scottsdale Republic, "Eclectic Mix at Cervini Haas," Roberta Burnett,
April 16
IONS Review, Barbara McNeill, ed., portfolio; Issue 62, Dec. 02–Feb. 03
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Expanding the Possibilities of Paper," Jerry
Cullum; November 15
New York Times, "Hot Wax," William Zimmer; November 10
Philadelphia Inquirer, "Novel Process, Classical Elegance," Edward
J. Sozanski; May 19
Philadelphia Weekly, "Play On," Roberta Fallon; May 10
Philadelphia Daily Local News, "Ancient Medium Explored Again," R.B.
Strauss; May 4
Boston Sunday Globe, "The Process," Catherine Foster; March 3
Art New England, "The Art of Encaustic Painting," book review, Susan
Schwalb; Feb/March
Arizona Republic, "Beauty of Encaustic Has its Price," John
Carlos Villani, November 8
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Waxing Eloquent," Catherine Fox; October
12
Manila Today, "Art Guide," review; June 6
The Philippine Star, "Gallery News," review; June 5
Art in America, "Joanne Mattera at Marcia Wood," Jerry Cullum; March
Design and Architecture (Manila), "An Italian Spell in Tagaytay," Alane
Ty; February
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Mattera Infuses Modernist Grid with
New Depth," Jerry Cullum; July 1999
New York Arts, "Picks," Christopher Chambers; October 1997
Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Four Artists," Jerry Cullum; Oct. 3,
1997
William and Mary Review, Erica Weitzman ed., portfolio; Vol. 35, 1997
Artforum, "Objects of Their Affection at Interart Center," Keith Seward;
Feb. 1994
Art Voices, "Joanne Mattera," Jessica Scarborough; July/August 1981
Driadi, "Du Blanc a la Couleur," Michel Thomas; April 1981
Maenad, "Joanne Mattera," portfolio; Spring 1981
Sojourner, "Risks Pay Off," Jessica Scarborough; August 1980
American Craft, "Joanne Mattera," portfolio; " Spring 1980 |
CATALOGS & ESSAYS
|
2006
2002 |
Joanne Mattera: Ten Years of Encaustic Painting, for
the eponymous exhibition, Salem State College, Salem, Mass.,
March-April, 2006; essays by Flavia Rando and the artist
Order(ed), for the eponymous exhibition curated by Julie Karabenick
at Gallery Siano, Philadelphia, May-June, 2006; essay, "Beauty, Order and
Individuality," by Roberta Fallon
"Uttar: Poetics of Materiality and Process," Flavia Rando; from the
exhibition, "New Paintings in Encaustic," Simon Gallery, Morristown,
N.J., Sept.-October, 2002 |
ONLINE
|
| |
Steven Alexander Journal, Joanne
Mattera, Steven Alexander, March 15, 2008
Abstract Art on Line, New
York Views: Joanne Mattera at OK Harris, Joseph
Walentini, May 15, 2007
Geoform, An
Interview with Joanne Mattera, Julie Karabenick, editor
Fallon and Rosof’s Artblog, "Order(ed)," review
by Libby Rosof, May 17, 2006
Look, See, "Joanne
Mattera's Encaustic Paintings," essay by Chris Ashley , April
16, 2006; (scroll part way down the page) |
EDUCATION
|
| |
M.A., Visual Arts, Goddard College, Plainfield,
Vermont
B.F.A., Painting, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston |
SELECTED CRITICAL OVERVIEW
|
| |
“Mattera . . . excels in taking encaustic,
this oldest of media, in the most lush minimal and formal directions.
“Contemplating the Horizontal" features stripes that manage
to retain strict geometry while never forgetting the gestural
touch of the artist's hand, especially in a subtractive sub-series
where wax is scraped away in horizontal bands to reveal underlying
layers of color and texture. While most of her panels are square,
the show doesn't lack for variety or vibrant color.”
--Shawn Hill, "Boston's Newbury Street Galleries," Berkshire
Fine Arts, December 27, 2008
"These pieces highlight the artist's delicate, almost surgical, touch
as she decides how deep to dig, to which level of color. The joyful tones play
together, waking up the weary-eyed. The horizontal veins widen and narrow like
rivulets. . . Sometimes it's a relief to stop thinking and just gaze on something
beautiful."
--Cate McQuaid, "Color Their World," The
Boston Globe, December 17, 2008
"Order and beauty form the organizing principle in an engaging new exhibition
at Marcia Wood Gallery....Using Baudelaire and Matisse as a springboard for
contemporary expression, Mattera's premise is both clever and effective. Fastidious
process (order) is essential to aesthetic outcome (beauty). Mattera's selections
are smart and pleasing in a show that combines control and creativity, visual
and tactile harmony, and individual refrains of luxe, calme et volupte....Verdict:
Intelligent and pleasurable."
--Debra Wolf, “Spirit of Baudelaire, Matisse Flows,” Atlanta
Journal Constitution, July 8, 2007
“Over
the years Joanne Mattera has gradually reduced the imagery in
her work to finally arrive at this celebration of color and surface….Mattera
combines conceptual order, as embodied in the structure of the
grid, with beauty.”
--Joseph Walentini, "New York Views," Abstract
Art on Line, May 17, 2007
“The medium itself is very much the subject of "Silk
Road," Ms.
Mattera's series of small encaustic panels on view at OK Harris.
Each panel is a simple expanse of what appears, at quick glance,
to be a single color. But owing to the opalescent properties
of pigmented beeswax applied in layers, these radiant fields
are irreducible to monochrome. Cunning visual subtleties are
the raison d'être of the series…The refinement of Ms. Mattera's
touch is all the more impressive when weighed against the handling
properties of encaustic, which work against finesse. Encaustic
begins to cool — and harden — the instant a brush leaves the
heated palette.”
--Maureen Mullarkey, "Joanne Mattera at OK Harris
Works of Art," The New York Sun, May
3, 2007
“Joanne Mattera is one of the acknowledged American
authorities working in encaustic. Her “Uttar 157” shows a mastery
that allows the application of the medium in thick, vigorous
swipes and encourages the result to stand up above the surface
of the work. Its boldness and ravishing color are unique in this
event.”
--Philip Isaacson, review of “Fusion: A Portland Encaustic
Event,” Maine
Sunday Telegram, Feb. 18, 2007
On The Joanne
Mattera Art Blog: “Mattera provides literate and important
insights into the process of creating art.”
--Raymond A. Liddell, Art New England, December/January
2007
"The buildup of drops of wax signifies the passing of time, a real passing
as well as a metaphorical one. The poetry of time passing is seen in the light
captured in the layers of wax, seemingly frozen in the medium like a seed in
amber. Mattera employs in these paintings what she calls 'disciplined intuition." A
superb colorist able to evoke emotional content, she contains the expressive
elements within the fomality of the grid."
-- Nancy Einreinhofer, curator of "Luminous Depths" at
Wm. Paterson University, Wayne, N.J., 2006
“Mattera…is
an artist who delights in the process. With a palette influenced
by Indian miniature painting and with a love of non-narrative,
non-objective expression, Mattera delivers a world of beauty
and order in which individual [elements]—with their spontaneous
expressions of color, texture, drip, drop and slather—are valued.
‘Uttar 135’ is a statement of peace and a meditation on life’s
wonders.”
--Roberta Fallon, from the catalog essay, “Order(ed)”,
May 2006
“The light in Joanne Mattera’s paintings is
about the present and the just passing present. The light is
present in the material— it’s physical, and it interacts with
the environment and with current lighting conditions. But if
her art has what some might call a contemplative dimension it’s
because while the light is a thing that draws us in, it’s the
way this light is held in the wax, and the way we look below
the surface and into the depth of this light-filled wax, that
slows down our looking just a beat to an even more present presence,
one that is slow enough for us to see passing. If our looking
stayed on the surface our attention might glance off and finish.
If our looking goes beyond a surface, even if a only a fraction
of an inch into a physical depth and a depicted depth, our seeing
is more settled. The physical effect is slower looking. The psychological
effect is awareness of self in relation to the phenomenological
world.”
--Chris Ashley, from the weblog, “Look, See,” April 5,
2006
"Uttar 250,’ part of a continuing series by Joanne
Mattera, is the most luxuriant painting here, inspired by the
colors of India, by traditional Indian miniature painting with
its saffrons, roses, vermilions, indigos, emeralds, cinnabars.
Also encaustic, its version of the grid consists of three stacks
of more or less even strokes of colors which in turn drip paint,
like syrup. This is a voluptuous painting, its grid about to
melt down, it seems, into pure, irresistible paint.”
--Lilly Wei, from the essay, “Geometry Reloaded,” NY
Arts, April 2005
“Mattera revels
in the medium’s stained-glass-like luminosity. She’s a colorist
whose principal concern is how tones interact and play off one
another….Throughout, there’s a sense that light is powering these
works.”
--Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, December
10, 2004
“Mattera’s play of color and luminosity is beguiling.”
--Rachel Strutt, Arts Media (Boston),
March 2004
“Minimalist artists used the grid to downplay the sensuality
of color and brushstrokes. The austerity helped focus the viewer’s
attention on pigment as pigment, line as line—a primary concern
of 60’s minimalism. Joanne Mattera has a different agenda. She
uses grids the way classical poets used rigorous rhyme schemes:
to impose elegant order onto an otherwise messy outpouring of
emotion.”
--Staff review, The Week (New
York City), April 18, 2003
“Mattera’s square panels light up the intimate space
of the gallery…Mattera’s squares, dots and stripes are minimal,
but just enough to hold her emotive colors together. Each painting
is a distinct world.”
--Shawn Hill, Arts Media, April
15-May 15, 2003
"'Uttar' is intimate, embodying the artist’s
emotional response to the emotional world. Mattera is in love
with color, with material, with process….For Mattera, the process
of making art is a process of intuition working within a disciplined
framework.”
--Flavia Rando, Ph.D., from the essay, "Uttar: Poetics
of Materiality and Process," September, 2002
“Joanne Mattera is represented by nine paintings from
her ‘Uttar’ series. The sweep in these one-foot-square paintings
of encaustic on panel is in the vibrant color, paced by how the
compositions grow from one piece to the next.”
--R.B. Strauss, Philadelphia Daily
Local News , May 4, 2002
“One of
the nation’s premier encaustic specialists.”
--John Carlos Villani, The Arizona
Republic, November 18, 2001
“Mattera’s expert manipulation of beeswax in encaustic
creates works of finesse and subtlety.”
--Staff review, The Philippine Star, June
5, 2000
“Despite the complex formal relations present in these
works, the overall tone is intuitive rather than cerebral and
defines Mattera as a particularly adept representative of poetic
intelligence.”
--Jerry Cullum, Art in America, March,
2000
“Encaustic, the successive layering of melted colored
wax, is one of the world’s oldest ways of putting down pigment
on a surface. New York artist Joanne Mattera finds ways to wring
contemporary content from the method. Many of her works start
with the almost universal theme of the modernist grid, wrenching
the grid asunder in various energized and interesting ways….Mattera
succeeds in achieving many visual outcomes with a limited range
of materials, producing works in which every scratch and drip
yield something different.”
--Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July
17, 1999
“Joanne Mattera…employs a grid-based field for her sensuous
abstract encaustic paintings. She works with a classic formula
of beeswax colored with oil-based dispersion pigments to build
up as many as twenty layers of translucent paint. The surface
is further enriched through incising lines into which pigment
is rubbed, making marks with oil stick or oil pastel, or scraping
to reveal previous strata.”
--Gail Stavitsky, curator, Montclair Art Museum, from
the catalog, "Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America," 1999
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