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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT MARCH 9, 2023
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The art of pattern recognition
“Indigo Girls” by Luca Molnar is inspired by Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who was credited with establishing indigo as a cash crop in South Carolina.
Luca Molnar’s “Radium Girls” painting is inspired by the historic watch-dial painters.
Luca Molnar illuminates the networks of people, politics and power in her latest painting series at Art Center Sarasota. MARTY FUGATE CONTRIBUTOR
L
uca Molnar’s latest painting series is a dense collision of patterns and historical personalities. Her patterns flow from a range of spaces, both public and private. According to Molnar, “I’m captivated by the domestic environment and our everyday encounters with pattern in spaces like bathrooms and kitchens.” She adds that while “home” is theoretically a sheltering safe space, it’s sometimes a workhouse for women’s often-unseen labors. “It can also be a battleground for intimate violence,” she adds. Molnar also confronts the exploitation of women in the workforce. The networks of power and politics aren’t in your face in her fractured narratives. To find them, the viewer must exercise their own powers of pattern recognition. Molnar takes the same approach as an assistant professor of studio art at Stetson University. She graciously connected the dots in our recent conversation.
Courtesy photos
“I’m not interested in subtle color. I want color that yells at you.” Artist LUCA MOLNAR
What drives you to create?
For me, it’s a process of inquiry. I’ll start with a narrative that interests me — and then keep digging in different directions to see what comes up. During this process, I begin to figure out how personal and political history intersects and influences the ideas and experiences of the present. You often paint the walls behind your paintings the dominant color of your artwork. That blurs the boundary of where your art stops and the world begins. What’s your strategy with that?
I’m interested in breaking the white cube. I want to give my paintings alternate spaces to exist beyond just
white walls. That first started with the big yellow painting — “Giornata.” I was inspired by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” It’s a short story about Jane, a writer with unnamed postpartum depression. Her husband locks her up in an attic that’s covered in yellow wallpaper. Jane slowly descends into madness and feels consumed by it. This feeling of being enveloped and maybe even attacked by a color became very interesting to me. My monochrome series evokes that visual intensity. I’m not interested in subtle color. I want color that yells at you. SEE PATTERN, PAGE 2
Artist Luca Molnar explores patterns in her work, which is on display at Art Center Sarasota.
IF YOU GO
‘SAME SOURCE: WORK BY LUCA MOLNAR.’ When: Through March 11 Where: Art Center Sarasota, 707 N. Tamiami Trail. Info: Visit ArtSarasota.org.