Mary Didoardo “Reckless in the Lab”

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts

This event has ended.

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts presents an exhibition of new paintings by Mary Didoardo.

In this most recent body of work, Didoardo continues her exploration of dynamic line and color. Scrutiny of her paintings reveals the marks of fracture and surfaces worked. She begins her paintings by adding layer upon layer of paint to wood panels. The surface is then covered in tape, upon which Didoardo draws her signature expressive lines. In contrast to the freedom of this gesture, she then painstakingly cuts along these markings with an exacto-knife, and applies yet another layer of paint to the revealed surface. Finally, she removes the remaining packaging tape, which causes flakes of paint to peel off and reveal hidden colors. This process of building and revealing is captured in layers of paint and looping, swirling compositions. The manic dance of line across the canvas is chaos made visible, reaching sudden resolution. In their gestural eloquence, the paintings are simultaneously serious and celebratory.

Of her own work, Didoardo says: “There is a visceral connection between viewer and painter through the surface reading of a painting. All of my research is made visible in the sensuality of oil paint, it’s luminosity and chameleonic shifts of color. Sometimes through the cumulative experience it resolves with ease. Other times the tortured surface demonstrates the struggle.”

This is Didoardo’s second solo exhibition at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. She has also exhibited in group shows in the New York area, including at The Strohl Art Gallery at the Chautauqua Institution, White Columns, C.G.Jung Foundation and The Painting Center. She has been the recipient of the Enrico Donati Foundation Grant, was a resident at the Millay Colony, and she studied at Washington University and received her B.F.A from Pratt Institute.