MUSIC OF THE SPHERES - Recent Digital Paintings by Chalda Maloff

CHALDA MALOFF

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

Music of the Spheres is an exhibit of digital paintings, presented in small editions as pigment ink prints on gloss paper, face-mounted to sheets of museum-grade acrylic. No photographic process was used in the creation of these artworks.

Creative tools: Wacom® tablet, Corel® Painter™, Adobe® Photoshop®, MAC®, Epson 9800® printer.

COVER: 8 Improvisation 30x30” Ed 3

ABOVE: Improvisation details

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES Recent Digital Paintings

by Chalda Maloff

9/3/19—9/28/19

547 West 27th Street, Suite 201, New York, NY 10001 • 212-947-6100

ARTIST STATEMENT

With my latest group of digital paintings, I offer the viewer a fantastical biosphere of botanic and aquatic images. Rooted in the Greek philosophy of “Music of the Spheres�, these abstract artworks are suggestive of the pulse or rhythm of life.

This series of pieces originated in my mind on a wee hours saunter on an urban greenbelt. My attention was seized by a microcosm of insect webs and dew drops, which seemed to throb with an exquisite energy that felt almost audible.

The spectre recalled to me the ancient concept that celestial bodies vibrate to make a form of music. It was reasoned that, humankind, living in the midst of this continuous symphony, defines it as silence. But with tender consideration to the individual reverberations, each is revealed to be a sacred descant of beauty, complete within itself and yet a dynamic voice in the ensemble.

Influential in the classical and Renaissance eras, this concept seems particularly germane today. My graduate studies in the field of Human Ecology, coupled with my Art History background, inform my reinterpretation of the philosophical metaphor into a visual domain.

CHALDA MALOFF

To reference the vibrational energies of nature, I utilize the push-and-pull of aesthetic elements across the frame. I counterpose dense areas with transparencies, solid with splatter, organic with mechanical. I take liberties with conventional notions of space.

I employ an ebullient palette and compositions rich in verticals to convey a sense of grace and fortitude. I often use exaggerated scale and the illusion of backlighting to suggest a poetic or divine disposition.

My goal with these works is to leave the viewer energized, perhaps with a heightened awareness of the nuance of passing moments, and of the ongoing contribution of the smallest perfections around us.

photo credit: Max Yawney

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Music of the Spheres

1 Reminiscence 30x30” Ed 3 CHALDA MALOFF

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2 Restoration 30x30” Ed 3

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3 Solitude 30x30” Ed 3 CHALDA MALOFF

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PROCESS As a young graduate student in computer science in San Francisco in the early 70’s, Chalda Maloff was lucky enough to receive a private demo of some of the earliest art software. The computer was a crude aesthetic instrument at that time, but she was intrigued by the possibilities.

Today, her state-of-the art studio bears scant resemblance to that of the demo.

The artist’s creative toolbox includes an electronic Wacom tablet with stylus, sophisticated software such as Corel Painter ®, a Mac Pro computer ®, and an Epson 9800 fine art printer ®.

Maloff builds her images with freehand tablet drawing, combined with her developed complement of digital techniques. She does not employ any type of photography in her pieces.

Each new series of works begins with a concept. Although progress can move in fits and starts over months or longer, the artist has particular mental processes for moving from abstract idea to line, color, and form.

Four features of the digital medium mesh with the artist’s mindset and preferred way of working.

1. The ability to mix media, brushes, and surface textures, all done virtually, which yields stimulating and involving aesthetic effects not possible with any natural medium.

2. The zoom facility, which allows working in meticulous detail.

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Music of the Spheres

3. The ability to use layers and transparencies and delay committing them, which affords greater control in building tight, coherent compositions.

4. The “undo� feature, which enables her to flow with visual ideas, and evaluate multiple directions for a piece.

She prints in-house with pigment inks, which are brilliant and lightfast. Since colors on a screen appear different from colors of ink on paper, the transition from file to print is seldom straightforward. Several test prints are frequently needed, with fine-tuning of the file between printings, before the perfect image is produced.

For presentation, she face-mounts the print on a 3/8 inch thick sheet of museumgrade UV protected acrylic, with a custom designed hanging mechanism that allows it to be exhibited frameless.

Occasionally Maloff produces a single print and retires the file. Other times she produces a small edition of 3 to 12 works, varying the file somewhat between printings so that each final artwork will be unique.

CHALDA MALOFF

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4 Pantheon 24x48” Ed 5

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Music of the Spheres

5 Prelude 30x30” Ed 3 CHALDA MALOFF

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7 Staff 30x30” Ed 3

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9 Crescendo 30x30” Ed 3 CHALDA MALOFF

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10 Allegiance 30x30” Ed 3

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11 A Capella 30x30” Ed 3 CHALDA MALOFF

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12 Testimony 30x30” Ed 3

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13 Labyrinth (State 2) 30x30” Unique print CHALDA MALOFF

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14 Rondo 30x30” Ed 3

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Music of the Spheres

15 Peace Marble 5x7” Ed 12

16 Crystal Glow 5x7” Ed 12

CHALDA MALOFF

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17 Sunkissed Marble 5x7” Ed 12

21 Sidetracked 5x7” Ed 9

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Music of the Spheres

18 Invocation 30x30” Ed 3 CHALDA MALOFF

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19 Snake Pit 30x30” Ed 3

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20 Primavera 10x14” Ed 9

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Essay on

Music of the Spheres exhibit

by Heather Zises, Editor of 50 Contemporary Women Artists

Each and every art practice has a certain alchemy to it. Chalda Maloff’s role as an art maker is one that embraces the precision of math and the exactitude of computers. As a digital painter, the artist seeks to engage the viewer on an elemental level by tapping into a domain more authentic than our physical world. Employing her signature close-up style, Maloff creates metaphysical bodies of work punctuated with color and form.

Hinged upon an electric palette of gestural lines and drop shadows, ecological species and fantastical botanica are woven into an expressive whole.

In her newest exhibition Music of the Spheres, Maloff pairs ancient concepts with contemporary issues of ecology. Drawing upon the early philosophical theory Music of the spheres, the artist’s digital paintings portray movements of celestial bodies as a form of music. This “music”, however, is not literally audible but rather a harmonic mathematical or religious conceit. An influential theory throughout the Renaissance, the Music of the spheres incorporates the metaphysical principle that mathematical relationships express “tones” of energy which manifest in numbers, visual angles, shapes and sounds that are all connected within a pattern of proportion.

Maloff triggers “tones” of energy in her compositions by implementing two visual elements: the illusion of backlight and symmetrical geometry. Using light and shape as her principal instruments, Maloff’s artworks function as a conduit of spirituality and emotion.

Inspired by the primal days of fire worship to modern times of screen worship, the artist mixes ancient tradition with contemporary activity made possible only from a digital platform. Within each painting, Maloff wields the illusion of light to create dimensional volumes silhouetted against a flat ground. Opaque forms inherit an inner glow as they reveal an atmosphere of punctuated shapes and geometric angles. Gradient color washes and mosaic patterns work to kindle the imagination, eliciting feelings of pleasure and sensuality from the viewer. Amplifying this surface tension is the appearance of spatial ambiguity within each picture. By counter posing digital splatter with solid shapes, Maloff pushes her forms into a sculptural sphere causing the foreground and background to become interchangeable. Oscillating from hard to soft zones, the picture plane becomes a lens that is constantly refocusing itself.

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Music of the Spheres

All of the works featured in Music of the Spheres mirror the idea that they are scores like musical compositions. More specifically, their formal aspects imply that things must be interpreted and played out in the viewer’s mind. Quite fittingly, several titles in the series reference music: A Capella, Crescendo, Improvisation, Invocation, Prelude and Rondo. Spiked with staccato points and dramatic arcs, each painting reflects clusters of sonic activity.

Maloff’s creative process corresponds to the inner workings of her mind: one that is of total control. As someone who studied math and computers, this aspect is vital since precision is her wheelhouse. Maloff begins by creating all of her paintings with various computer software, and then prints them on a large format fine art printer. Once executed, the images are mounted onto museum-grade acrylic with polished edges so that the maximum amount of light may radiate from each tableau. Working digitally allows Maloff to achieve enormous detail and control the image down to the pixel.

Administering the software like a brush, she mixes virtual media such as watercolor, pencil, ink and pastel until she finds them aesthetically satisfying. To build up her compositions, the artist employs a digital layering process. This method allows her to override any obstacles that may occur while painting live such as accidental splatter or the risk of paint drying too fast during application. It is important that the digital layers remain active at all times so she can adjust her palette on a micro level. Interestingly, Maloff’s analog background of working in aquatint informs this persuasion, such that it involves a meticulous process of multiple layers (acid baths on plate) and once the layers are set, it is nearly impossible to correct the underlayers.

Maloff chose to work in a digital medium for its power to combine and synthesize various artistic effects. Her preferred method not only provides an arsenal of creative tools but also extraordinary options for developing an image. Through the interpretation of light, color and form, Maloff renders paintings that evoke an immediate response but also reveal more of themselves over time.

CHALDA MALOFF

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22 Glass Ceiling 10x14” Ed 12

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6 Recess 20x28” Ed 9

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