Rallou Malliarakis – Press Release

What’s On The Ground And In The Air

October 6-31, 2020

paste color splash

White Wing, Flat Sky, oil on canvas, 18 x 12 inches

FIRST STREET GALLERY is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by Rallou Malliarakis, currently on view from October 6 through 31, 2020.

A crack in the pavement, the smudge on a wall, shadows obliquely cast at different times of day, the glimpse of a bird’s silhouette in flight, the dancing presence of leaves above our heads or on the ground… these are the narratives at play in Malliarakis’ latest series of oil paintings. The interplay of urban properties with nature’s actualities continue to inform the artist’s vision for her new work, resulting in a group of paintings based on years of observing, digesting, and committing what is seen to memory. Figuration varies from picture to picture, at times distinct, at others ambiguous and abstracted. Purposeful distortions and exaggerations in the work are periodically referenced.

As verse or language resonates in the mind, heightening the listener’s experience of tone and cadence, the pictures represented in this exhibition reflect a sequence of disparate impressions that have been witnessed over time, recycled and recalled in the imagination, and finally realized on canvas. Each piece is enlivened by color unique to its pictorial story, be it lyrical and atmospheric or enhanced with chromatic intensity.