15 | January | 2014 | Painter's Progress

Diamond Lattice, 1-24. Studio view

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Joanne Mattera.

Chromatic Geometry 13, 2013, encaustic on panel, diptych, 24x48

Chromatic Geometry 13, 2013, encaustic on panel, diptych, 24×48

Education
M.A., Visual Arts, Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont
B.F.A., Painting, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston

Chromatic Geometry 7, 2013, encaustic on panel, 12x12

Chromatic Geometry 7, 2013, encaustic on panel, 12×12

“Two concerns have engaged me throughout my career: color and geometric order. The grid is the underpinning of these concerns. Within its rigor I organize repeated elements—usually a stripe or square—painting them with a succulent brush that is at odds with the reductivism of the composition. I have long referred to my work as lush minimalism, a term that’s as tongue in cheek as it is true.

The saturated color I use, influenced by Siennese paintings and Indian miniatures, is nevertheless of its own time. A 21st-century palette embodies different intensities, transparencies and chromatic relationships. The encaustic paint I use for much of my work brings a differently refractive quality to the color than other mediums, as well as optical depth and substantive texture.

I work in series, often on a small scale, because my chromatic concerns—subtle shifts in hue, texture and depth—require intimate viewing. I often install these small works in wall-size grids—color and geometry asserting themselves on a larger scale while maintaining the essential intimacy.

I invite you to read the interview with me by Julie Karabenick, editor of Geoform, an online curatorial project whose focus is geometric abstraction.” JM