Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008 Contemplating the Horizontal Arden Gallery, Boston
2008 Hue Again Schlosberg Gallery, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass.
2008 (Curators: Leonie Bradbury and Shana Dumont)
2007 Silk Road OK Harris Works of Art, New York City
2007 It’s Always About Hue, Isn’t It? Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2006 Heat of the Moment Arden Gallery, Boston
2006 Pure Color Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2006 10 Years of Encaustic Painting Winfisky Gallery, Salem State College, Salem, Mass.
2004 New Paintings in Encaustic Arden Gallery, Boston
2004 New Paintings Simon Gallery, Morristown, New Jersey
2004 New Paintings Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2003 New Paintings Arden Gallery, Boston
2003 Mudra: New Paintings Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2002 Uttar: New Paintings Simon Gallery, Morristown
2001 New Encaustic Paintings Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2000 New Encaustic Paintings Arden Gallery, Boston
2000 Verso: Thought, Breath, Memory Espace Gallery, Manila, Philippines
1999. New Paintings Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
1996. Linear Perspectives OK Harris Works of Art, New York City
1995. New Paintings in Encaustic Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
..
Selected Group Exhibitions
2010 Oasis Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson
2009 Slippery When Wet Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn
2009 Summer Guest House Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2009 Obsessions Adler & Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2009 Stayin' Alive Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn
2009 GeoMetrics II Gallery 128, New York City (Curator: Gloria Klein)
2009 Castle Hill at the Provincetown (Mass.) Art Association and Museum, Hans Hoffman Gallery
2009 Gallery Artists: Works On Paper June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine
2009 Love, Lust and Desire McGowan Fine Art, Concord, New Hampshire
2009 Bridge Art Fair, New York Invited by DM Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
2009 Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Adler & Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2008 Material Color Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, New Jersey (Curator: Mary Birmingham)
2008 No Chromophobia OK Harris Works of Art, New York City (Curator: Richard Witter)
2008 Small Wonder Garson Baker Fine Art, New York City
2008 Relative Geometries Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson
2008 Gifts from the Studio Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, New York
2008 This Just in Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2008 Adler Group Show Adler & Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2008 Calculated Color Higgins Art Gallery, Barnstable, Mass. (Curator: Jane Lincoln)
2008 A Breath of Fresh Air Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
2008 Fourth Anniversary Exhibition DM Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
2008 Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Adler & Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2008 Art Now Fair New York City, Invited by DM Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
2007 Punchbowl Metaphor Contemporary Art, Brooklyn, New York
2007 The Blogger Show Agni Gallery, New York City (Organizer: John Morris)
2007 Gigantic Small Works Show Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia
2007 The Fusion Project June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine
2007 Adler Group Show Adler & Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2007 Encaustic Invitational Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson
2007 Art Now Fair Miami Beach, invited by DM Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
2007 Red Dot Fair Miami Beach, invited by Arden Gallery, Boston
2007 Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Adler and Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2007 Red Dot Fair New York, invited by Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
2006 Neo Plastic Redux Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York City (Organizer: Miles Manning)
2006 Gigantic Small Works Show Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia
2006 Nancy Manter, Joanne Mattera, Babe Shapiro DM Contemporary, Mill Neck, New York
2006 A Thing of Beauty and A Joy Forever Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
2006 Minimal Minimal Works Gallery, Philadelphia
2006 Luminous Depths Ben Shahn Galleries, Wm. Paterson University, Wayne, N.J.
2006(Curator: Nancy Einreinhofer)
2006 Adler Group Show Adler & Co. Gallery, San Francisco
2006 Order(ed) Siano Gallery, Philadelphia (Curator: Julie Karabenick with essay by Roberta Fallon)
2006 Flow Art Fair Miami Beach, invited by Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont
2006 Art (212) Fair New York, invited by Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2006 Los Angeles Art Show Invited by Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2005 What Did Puck Say? Heidi Cho Gallery, New York City
2005 Engaging the Structural Broadway Gallery, New York City (Curator: Julie Karabenick)
2005 Cooled and Collected: Modern Masters of Contemporary Encaustic, Boon Gallery, Salem, Mass.
2005 Wish You Were Here IV A.I.R. Gallery, New York City
2005 Color Theory Schweinfurth Art Center, Auburn, New York (Curator: Kenise Barnes)
2005 Wax Art Brush Gallery, Lowell, Mass. (Curator: E. Linda Poras)
2005 Works On Paper Invitational Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2005 Wax Works McGowan Fine Arts, Concord, New Hampshire
2005 AAF Contemporary Fair New York, invited by Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2004 Color Theory Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, New York
2004 Unbound: Selected Artists from ‘The Art of Encaustic Painting’ R&F
2004 Gallery, Kingston, New York (Curator: Laura Moriarty)
2004 Four New York Artists Patrick Olson Gallery, Plymouth, Michigan
2004 AAF Contemporary Fair New York, invited by Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2003 Encaustic Now II Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2003 Wish You Were Here Too A.I.R. Gallery, New York City
2003 The Way of Wax Winfisky Gallery at Salem State College, Salem, Mass.
2003 Serenity Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2003 AAF Contemporary Fair New York, Thatcher Projects, New York City
2003 Art Santa Fe Invited by Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2003 Tickled Pink Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2003 Art Miami Invited by Arden Gallery, Boston
2002 Work on Paper Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2002 Lush Abstraction Melanee Cooper Gallery, Chicago
2002 Hot Wax Cummings Art Center at Connecticut College, New London
2002 Artcetera Boston Center for the Arts, Boston
2002 Works on Paper Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2002 The Postcard Show A.I.R. Gallery, New York City
2002 Water Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2002 Enkaustikos: Wax As a Contemporary Medium Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia
2002 Centering Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa, California
2002 Generations III A.I.R. Gallery, New York City
2002 AAF Contemporary Fair New York, Thatcher Projects, New York City
2002 Art San Francisco Invited by Newzones Gallery, Calgary, Canada
2001 Encaustic Now Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2001 Encaustic Works Arden Gallery, Boston
2001 The Art of Encaustic Painting Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2001 Encaustic: Joanne Mattera and Friends Melanee Cooper Gallery, Chicago
2001 Big Painting Cervini Haas Gallery, Scottsdale
2001 Deck the Walls Newzones Gallery, Calgary
2000 Constant Aesthetic Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
2000 Generations II: A Survey of Women Artists at the Millennium A.I.R Gallery, New York City
2000 Aesthetic Boundaries Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
2000 The Other Side and This Side: The Art of Italian and Italian-American
2000 Women Casa Italiana, New York City
2000 Pieces IV Gallery 128, New York City (Curator: Sylvia Netzer)
2000 Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America Knoxville (Tenn.) Museum of Art
1999 Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America Montclair (N.J.) Art Museum (Curator: Gail Stavitsky)
1999 Signs, Codes and Surfaces Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
1999 Pieces III Gallery 128, New York City (Curator: Sylvia Netzer)
1999 Los Angeles National Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica
1998 Contemporary Wax Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
1998 Small Works Washington Square East Gallery, New York City
1998 Generations A.I.R. Gallery, New York City
1998 Ron Ehrlich, Gregory Johnston, Joanne Mattera, Hiro Yokose Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
1997 Cultural Markers Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
1997 1+1=3: Independent Artists, Collaborative Art Alicia Torres Fine Art, New York City
1997 Material Girls: Gender, Process and Abstract Art Since 1970 Gallery 128,
1997 New York City (Curator: Harmony Hammond)
1997 Inaugural Show Christine Adapon Gallery, Manila
1996 Cultural Markers Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
1995 Small Works Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
1995 Virtuosity Art Fair The Armory, New York, invited by Stephen Haller Gallery, New York City
1994 Waxing Minimal: Joanne Mattera, Inger Sand Lee, Tom Sime Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York City
1994 Signs, Codes & Alphabets Tribeca 148, New York City
1994 Small Works Washington Square East Gallery, New York City
1993 93 Wishes for '94 Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, New York City
1993 Small Works East West Cultural Center, New York City
1993 Works on Paper Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Mass. (Curator: Andre Emmerich)
1982 Works on Paper Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta
1982 Collage: Eleven Contemporary Artists Wheaton College, Norton, Mass. (Curator: Pallas Lombardi)
1981 Third Textile Biennial Savaria Museum, Szombatheley, Hungary
1980 Five Artists: Process and Product Art Colloquium Gallery, Salem, Mass.
1980 Artist/Artisan Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach
1980 Paper Hera Gallery, Providence
1979 Paper: Metamorphoses Florence Duhl Gallery, New York City
1979 Ninth International Biennale de la Tapisserie Musee des Beaux Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
1978 New Works Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York City
1978 Small Works: An Invitational Touchstone Gallery, New York City
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Awards
2007 Ella Jackson Chair, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Truro, Mass.
2005 Artist’s Resource Trust grant, a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Massachusetts
1997 Juror’s Award, Painting and Sculpture National, San Jacinto College, Houston; Howard Fox, juror
1995 Juror’s Award, Small Works, Washington Square East Gallery, New York City; Jacquie Littlejohn, juror
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Selected Collections
The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey
University Libraries Collection, State University of New York at Albany
Wheaton College Gallery, Permanent Collection, Norton, Massachusetts
Alston & Bird, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
Beacon Properties, Boston
Dana Farber Institute, Boston
Delta Airlines, Boston
Evans Encaustics, Sonoma, California
McKee Nelson, New York City
Pacific Peninsula Group, Menlo Park, California
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Florham Park, New Jersey
R&F Paints, Kingston, New York
Red Wheel/Weiser Books, Boston
U.S. Embassies, Slovenia and Poland
Consulate of Brunei
Eduardo Calma Architecture, Makati City, Philippines
Private collections: United States, Canada, the Philippines
Curatorial Projects
2009 Wax Libris curator, Paul Scott Library, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass.
2009 Blogpix, one of several curators, Platform Project Space, New York City
2007 Luxe, Calme et Volupte’ curator, Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2007 Thinking in Wax juror, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Truro, Mass.
2003 The Whole Ball of Wax juror, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago
1993 Objects of Their Affection curator, InterArt Center, New York City
1982 Artists on the Grid curator, Svetlana Rockwell Gallery, Cambridge
Organized Events
Co-organizer, Art Bloggers @, an adhoc group of art bloggers that convenes around the art fairs in Miami, New York and elsewhere
Founder and Director, Annual Conference of Encaustic Painting, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass.
.
Academic Affiliations
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston; Visiting Lecturer, 2D Fine Arts Department
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Visiting Artist
2009 Distinguished Visiting Artist series, Marywood University, Scranton, Pa.
2007 Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
2007 Montana State University, Bozeman
2004 Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts
2002 Weissman Visiting Artist, Connecticut College, New London
1999 State University of New York at Albany
.
Talks, Panels
2009 Moderator, panel in conjunction with Blogpix at Platform Project Space, New York City
2009 Moderator, "Conservators in Conversation," panel in conjunction with National Encaustic
2009 Conference, Beverly, Mass.
2008 Moderator, Art Bloggers @ Red Dot, New York City, during art fair week in March
2008 Presenter, College Art Association, Dallas; "Finding a Place for Yourself in the Art World"
2007 Keynote speaker, National Conference of Encaustic Painting, Montserrat
2007 College of Art; "Almost Mainstream After 2000 Years"
2007 Panelist, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, Maine; "Encaustic Painting"
2005 Keynote Speaker, Art League of Northern California, Novato; "Building and Sustaining a Career in Art"
2005 Speaker, The Brush Gallery, Lowell, Mass., "The Art of Encaustic Painting"
2005 Speaker, River Tree Center for the Arts, Kennebunk, Maine; "2000 Years of Encaustic Painting"
2004 Guest Lecturer, City College of New York; "Encaustic Painting"
2004 Guest Lecturer, R&F Gallery, Kingston, New York; Encaustic Forum
2001 Panelist, Ellis Island, New York City; "Contemporary Italian-American Women Artists"
2000 Speaker, Casa Italiana, New York University, New York City; "Material Influences"
2000 Panelist, Artists Talk on Art, New York City; Encaustic Painting
1999. Panelist, Painter’s Forum, New York City; Encaustic Painting
.
Writing
Current Joanne Mattera Artblog: reports, observations and opinions
2007 Luxe, Calme et Volupte: A Meditation on Visual Pleasure, essay for my
2007 curated exhibition at the Marcia Wood Gallery, Atlanta
2007 "Exquisite Dualities: The Recent Paintings of Alexandre Masino," essay
2007 "Material Witness: Silken Surfaces in Wax," essay of my work for the
2007 Surface Design Journal, Fall issue
2006 "Encaustic: The ‘New’ Art Medium, Just 2000 Years Old," essay for
2006 "Luminous Depths" catalog and exhibition
2006 "Dancing Shards: Between Order and Intuition," essay for painter Gloria Klein
2006 "Kevin Frank: The World in a Still Life," essay
2005 "Betsy Eby: Give and Take," essay for the Seattle-based painter
2005 "The Medium is the Message: Tracing the Arc Between Fiber and Wax," essay for sculptor Daniella Woolf
2001 The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient
2001 Medium of Pigmented Wax, Watson-Guptill, New York
1981-83 Fiberarts, Editor in Chief
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Selected Bibliography
Books
The Artist's Guide: Making A Living Doing What You Love, Da Capo, 2009; Jackie Battenfield
Abstract Painting, Watson Guptill, 2005; Vicky Perry
In Our Own Voices: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Italian and Italian-American Women,
2003 Bordighera Press, 2003; Elizabeth G. Messina, ed.
Spirit Maps, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2001; Joanna Arettam
Lesbian Art in America, Rizzoli, 2000; Harmony Hammond
Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America, 1999; The Montclair Art Museum/Rutgers Univ. Press; Gail Stavitsky, ed..
Periodicals
2009
Artscope, "Third Annual Conference of Encaustic Painting," Brian Goslow; May-June issue
2008
The Boston Globe, "Color Their World," Cate McQuaid; December 17
More magazine, "Art Beat," Alesha Hardwick-Whyte; October
The Boston Phoenix, "Waxing Poetic," Randi Hopkins; June 3
2007
Provincetown Banner, "When Art Runs Hot and Cold," Melora B. North; August 23
Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Spirit of Baudelaire, Matisse Flows," Debra Wolf; July 8
The New York Sun, "Joanne Mattera: Silk Road at OK Harris," Maureen Mullarkey; May 3
Phoenix Home and Garden, "Color Blocks," March
Maine Sunday Telegram, "Fusion: A Portland Encaustic Event," Philip Isaacson, Feb. 18
Maine Sunday Telegram, "Stacks of Wax," Bob Keyes; February 11
2006
Art New England, "Art Criticism on the Internet," Raymond A. Liddell; December
Boston Globe, "A Clever Pairing," Cate McQuaid; September 14
2005
Lowell Sun, "Whole Ball of Wax," Barbara Rizza Mellin; November 12
Art News, "How to Talk to An Artist," Gail Gregg; June
NY Arts, "Geometry Reloaded," Lilly Wei; April/May
Syracuse Post-Standard, "Color This Exhibit…," Katherine Rushworth; May 15
NYArts, "On and Off the Grid: In Conversation with Joanne Mattera," Julie Karabenick; Feb/March
New York Times, "‘Unbound: Selected Artists,"’ D. Dominick Lombardi; Jan. 2
2004
Boston Globe, "An Eyeful of Color," Cate McQuaid; December 10
Traditional Home, "A Fresh Shade of Bungalow," Eliot Nusbaum; Sept.
Arts Media, "Artists Wax Enthusiastic," Rachel Strutt; March
2003
Boston Sunday Globe, "Critics’ Picks," Christine Temin; April 28
Boston Globe, "Critics’ Picks," Cate McQuaid; April 18
Arts Media, "Joanne Mattera: Paintings in Encaustic," Shawn Hill; April-May
IONS Review, Barbara McNeill, ed., portfolio; Issue 63, March-June
The Week, "Joanne Mattera at Arden Gallery, Boston," April 19
Scottsdale Republic, "Eclectic Mix at Cervini Haas," Roberta Burnett, April 16
IONS Review, Barbara McNeill, ed., portfolio; Issue 62, Dec. 02–Feb. 03
2002
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Expanding the Possibilities of Paper," Jerry Cullum; November 15
New York Times, "Hot Wax," William Zimmer; November 10
Philadelphia Inquirer, "Novel Process, Classical Elegance," Edward J. Sozanski; May 19
Philadelphia Weekly, "Play On," Roberta Fallon; May 10
Philadelphia Daily Local News, "Ancient Medium Explored Again," R.B. Strauss; May 4
Boston Sunday Globe, "The Process," Catherine Foster; March 3
Art New England, "The Art of Encaustic Painting," book review, Susan Schwalb; Feb/March
2001
Arizona Republic, "Beauty of Encaustic Has its Price," John Carlos Villani, November 8
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Waxing Eloquent," Catherine Fox; October 12
2000
Manila Today, "Art Guide," review; June 6
The Philippine Star, "Gallery News," review; June 5
Art in America, "Joanne Mattera at Marcia Wood," Jerry Cullum; March
Design and Architecture (Manila), "An Italian Spell in Tagaytay," Alane Ty; February
1999-1980
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Mattera Infuses Modernist Grid with New Depth," Jerry Cullum; July 1999
New York Arts, "Picks," Christopher Chambers; October 1997
Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Four Artists," Jerry Cullum; Oct. 3, 1997
William and Mary Review, Erica Weitzman ed., portfolio; Vol. 35, 1997
Artforum, "Objects of Their Affection at Interart Center," Keith Seward; Feb. 1994
Art Voices, "Joanne Mattera," Jessica Scarborough; July/August 1981
Driadi, "Du Blanc a la Couleur," Michel Thomas; April 1981
Maenad, "Joanne Mattera," portfolio; Spring 1981
Sojourner, "Risks Pay Off," Jessica Scarborough; August 1980
American Craft, "Joanne Mattera," portfolio; " Spring 1980
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Catalogs and Essays
Material Color, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey, 2008; essay by Mary Birmingham, curator
Joanne Mattera: Ten Years of Encaustic Painting, for the eponymous exhibition,
2006 Salem State College, Salem, Mass., March-April, 2006; essays by Flavia Rando and the artist
Order(ed), for the eponymous exhibition curated by Julie Karabenick at Gallery Siano,
2006 Philadelphia, May-June, 2006; essay, "Beauty, Order and Individuality," by Roberta Fallon
"Uttar: Poetics of Materiality and Process," Flavia Rando; from the exhibition, "New
2002 Paintings in Encaustic," Simon Gallery, Morristown, N.J., Sept.-October, 2002
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Online
View List at Minus Space, Bulletin Board: Inspiration Information, curated by Karen Schifano
Making the Art Seen, Featured Painter: Joanne Mattera, interview by Sand T, July 2009
The Artist's Career Guide, Reality Check interview with Joanne Mattera by Jackie Battenfield, June 2009
NYC Art, GeoMetrics II, Chris Rywalt; March 25, 2009
Berkshire Fine Arts, Boston's Newbury Street Galleries, Shawn Hill; December 27, 2008
Steven Alexander Journal, Joanne Mattera, Steven Alexander, March 15, 2008
Abstract Art on Line, New York Views: Joanne Mattera at OK Harris, Joseph Walentini, May 15, 2007
Geoform, An Interview with Joanne Mattera, Julie Karabenick, editor
Fallon and Rosof’s Artblog, "Order(ed)," review by Libby Rosof, May 17, 2006
Look, See, "Joanne Mattera's Encaustic Paintings," essay by Chris Ashley , April 16, 2006
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Education
M.A., Visual Arts, Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont
B.F.A., Painting, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Selected Critical Overview
“Mattera . . . excels in taking encaustic, this oldest of media, in the most lush minimal and formal directions. “Contemplating the Horizontal" features stripes that manage to retain strict geometry while never forgetting the gestural touch of the artist's hand, especially in a subtractive sub-series where wax is scraped away in horizontal bands to reveal underlying layers of color and texture. While most of her panels are square, the show doesn't lack for variety or vibrant color.”
--Shawn Hill, "Boston's Newbury Street Galleries," Berkshire Fine Arts, December 27, 2008
"These pieces highlight the artist's delicate, almost surgical, touch as she decides how deep to dig, to which level of color. The joyful tones play together, waking up the weary-eyed. The horizontal veins widen and narrow like rivulets. . . Sometimes it's a relief to stop thinking and just gaze on something beautiful."
--Cate McQuaid, "Color Their World," The Boston Globe, December 17, 2008
"Order and beauty form the organizing principle in an engaging new exhibition at Marcia Wood Gallery....Using Baudelaire and Matisse as a springboard for contemporary expression, Mattera's premise is both clever and effective. Fastidious process (order) is essential to aesthetic outcome (beauty). Mattera's selections are smart and pleasing in a show that combines control and creativity, visual and tactile harmony, and individual refrains of luxe, calme et volupte....Verdict: Intelligent and pleasurable."
--Debra Wolf, “Spirit of Baudelaire, Matisse Flows,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 8, 2007
“Over the years Joanne Mattera has gradually reduced the imagery in her work to finally arrive at this celebration of color and surface….Mattera combines conceptual order, as embodied in the structure of the grid, with beauty.”
--Joseph Walentini, "New York Views," Abstract Art on Line, May 17, 2007
“The medium itself is very much the subject of "Silk Road," Ms. Mattera's series of small encaustic panels on view at OK Harris. Each panel is a simple expanse of what appears, at quick glance, to be a single color. But owing to the opalescent properties of pigmented beeswax applied in layers, these radiant fields are irreducible to monochrome. Cunning visual subtleties are the raison d'être of the series…The refinement of Ms. Mattera's touch is all the more impressive when weighed against the handling properties of encaustic, which work against finesse. Encaustic begins to cool — and harden — the instant a brush leaves the heated palette.”
--Maureen Mullarkey, "Joanne Mattera at OK Harris Works of Art," The New York Sun, May 3, 2007
“Joanne Mattera is one of the acknowledged American authorities working in encaustic. Her “Uttar 157” shows a mastery that allows the application of the medium in thick, vigorous swipes and encourages the result to stand up above the surface of the work. Its boldness and ravishing color are unique in this event.”
--Philip Isaacson, review of “Fusion: A Portland Encaustic Event,” Maine Sunday Telegram, Feb. 18, 2007
On The Joanne Mattera Art Blog: “Mattera provides literate and important insights into the process of creating art.”
--Raymond A. Liddell, Art New England, December/January 2007
"The buildup of drops of wax signifies the passing of time, a real passing as well as a metaphorical one. The poetry of time passing is seen in the light captured in the layers of wax, seemingly frozen in the medium like a seed in amber. Mattera employs in these paintings what she calls 'disciplined intuition." A superb colorist able to evoke emotional content, she contains the expressive elements within the fomality of the grid."
-- Nancy Einreinhofer, curator of "Luminous Depths" at Wm. Paterson University, Wayne, N.J., 2006
--Chris Ashley, from the weblog, “Look, See,” April 5, 2006
“‘Uttar 250,’ part of a continuing series by Joanne Mattera, is the most luxuriant painting here, inspired by the colors of India, by traditional Indian miniature painting with its saffrons, roses, vermilions, indigos, emeralds, cinnabars. Also encaustic, its version of the grid consists of three stacks of more or less even strokes of colors which in turn drip paint, like syrup. This is a voluptuous painting, its grid about to melt down, it seems, into pure, irresistible paint.”
--Lilly Wei, from the essay, “Geometry Reloaded,” NY Arts, April 2005
“Mattera revels in the medium’s stained-glass-like luminosity. She’s a colorist whose principal concern is how tones interact and play off one another….Throughout, there’s a sense that light is powering these works.”
--Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, December 10, 2004
“Mattera’s play of color and luminosity is beguiling.”
--Rachel Strutt, Arts Media (Boston), March 2004
“Minimalist artists used the grid to downplay the sensuality of color and brushstrokes. The austerity helped focus the viewer’s attention on pigment as pigment, line as line—a primary concern of 60’s minimalism. Joanne Mattera has a different agenda. She uses grids the way classical poets used rigorous rhyme schemes: to impose elegant order onto an otherwise messy outpouring of emotion.”
--Staff review, The Week (New York City), April 18, 2003
“Mattera’s square panels light up the intimate space of the gallery…Mattera’s squares, dots and stripes are minimal, but just enough to hold her emotive colors together. Each painting is a distinct world.”
--Shawn Hill, Arts Media, April 15-May 15, 2003
“’Uttar’ is intimate, embodying the artist’s emotional response to the emotional world. Mattera is in love with color, with material, with process….For Mattera, the process of making art is a process of intuition working within a disciplined framework.”
--Flavia Rando, Ph.D., from the essay, "Uttar: Poetics of Materiality and Process," September, 2002
“Joanne Mattera is represented by nine paintings from her ‘Uttar’ series. The sweep in these one-foot-square paintings of encaustic on panel is in the vibrant color, paced by how the compositions grow from one piece to the next.”
--R.B. Strauss, Philadelphia Daily Local News , May 4, 2002
“One of the nation’s premier encaustic specialists.”
--John Carlos Villani, The Arizona Republic, November 18, 2001
“Mattera’s expert manipulation of beeswax in encaustic creates works of finesse and subtlety.”
--Staff review, The Philippine Star, June 5, 2000
“Despite the complex formal relations present in these works, the overall tone is intuitive rather than cerebral and defines Mattera as a particularly adept representative of poetic intelligence.”
--Jerry Cullum, Art in America, March, 2000
“Encaustic, the successive layering of melted colored wax, is one of the world’s oldest ways of putting down pigment on a surface. New York artist Joanne Mattera finds ways to wring contemporary content from the method. Many of her works start with the almost universal theme of the modernist grid, wrenching the grid asunder in various energized and interesting ways….Mattera succeeds in achieving many visual outcomes with a limited range of materials, producing works in which every scratch and drip yield something different.”
--Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 17, 1999
“Joanne Mattera…employs a grid-based field for her sensuous abstract encaustic paintings. She works with a classic formula of beeswax colored with oil-based dispersion pigments to build up as many as twenty layers of translucent paint. The surface is further enriched through incising lines into which pigment is rubbed, making marks with oil stick or oil pastel, or scraping to reveal previous strata.”
--Gail Stavitsky, curator, Montclair Art Museum, from the catalog, "Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America," 1999
“Mattera . . . excels in taking encaustic, this oldest of media, in the most lush minimal and formal directions. “Contemplating the Horizontal" features stripes that manage to retain strict geometry while never forgetting the gestural touch of the artist's hand, especially in a subtractive sub-series where wax is scraped away in horizontal bands to reveal underlying layers of color and texture. While most of her panels are square, the show doesn't lack for variety or vibrant color.”
--Shawn Hill, "Boston's Newbury Street Galleries," Berkshire Fine Arts, December 27, 2008
"These pieces highlight the artist's delicate, almost surgical, touch as she decides how deep to dig, to which level of color. The joyful tones play together, waking up the weary-eyed. The horizontal veins widen and narrow like rivulets. . . Sometimes it's a relief to stop thinking and just gaze on something beautiful."
--Cate McQuaid, "Color Their World," The Boston Globe, December 17, 2008
"Order and beauty form the organizing principle in an engaging new exhibition at Marcia Wood Gallery....Using Baudelaire and Matisse as a springboard for contemporary expression, Mattera's premise is both clever and effective. Fastidious process (order) is essential to aesthetic outcome (beauty). Mattera's selections are smart and pleasing in a show that combines control and creativity, visual and tactile harmony, and individual refrains of luxe, calme et volupte....Verdict: Intelligent and pleasurable."
--Debra Wolf, “Spirit of Baudelaire, Matisse Flows,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 8, 2007
“Over the years Joanne Mattera has gradually reduced the imagery in her work to finally arrive at this celebration of color and surface….Mattera combines conceptual order, as embodied in the structure of the grid, with beauty.”
--Joseph Walentini, "New York Views," Abstract Art on Line, May 17, 2007
“The medium itself is very much the subject of "Silk Road," Ms. Mattera's series of small encaustic panels on view at OK Harris. Each panel is a simple expanse of what appears, at quick glance, to be a single color. But owing to the opalescent properties of pigmented beeswax applied in layers, these radiant fields are irreducible to monochrome. Cunning visual subtleties are the raison d'être of the series…The refinement of Ms. Mattera's touch is all the more impressive when weighed against the handling properties of encaustic, which work against finesse. Encaustic begins to cool — and harden — the instant a brush leaves the heated palette.”
--Maureen Mullarkey, "Joanne Mattera at OK Harris Works of Art," The New York Sun, May 3, 2007
“Joanne Mattera is one of the acknowledged American authorities working in encaustic. Her “Uttar 157” shows a mastery that allows the application of the medium in thick, vigorous swipes and encourages the result to stand up above the surface of the work. Its boldness and ravishing color are unique in this event.”
--Philip Isaacson, review of “Fusion: A Portland Encaustic Event,” Maine Sunday Telegram, Feb. 18, 2007
On The Joanne Mattera Art Blog: “Mattera provides literate and important insights into the process of creating art.”
--Raymond A. Liddell, Art New England, December/January 2007
"The buildup of drops of wax signifies the passing of time, a real passing as well as a metaphorical one. The poetry of time passing is seen in the light captured in the layers of wax, seemingly frozen in the medium like a seed in amber. Mattera employs in these paintings what she calls 'disciplined intuition." A superb colorist able to evoke emotional content, she contains the expressive elements within the fomality of the grid."
-- Nancy Einreinhofer, curator of "Luminous Depths" at Wm. Paterson University, Wayne, N.J., 2006
“Mattera…is an artist who delights in the process. With a palette influenced by Indian miniature painting and with a love of non-narrative, non-objective expression, Mattera delivers a world of beauty and order in which individual [elements]—with their spontaneous expressions of color, texture, drip, drop and slather—are valued. ‘Uttar 135’ is a statement of peace and a meditation on life’s wonders.”
--Roberta Fallon, from the catalog essay, “Order(ed)”, May 2006
--Chris Ashley, from the weblog, “Look, See,” April 5, 2006
“‘Uttar 250,’ part of a continuing series by Joanne Mattera, is the most luxuriant painting here, inspired by the colors of India, by traditional Indian miniature painting with its saffrons, roses, vermilions, indigos, emeralds, cinnabars. Also encaustic, its version of the grid consists of three stacks of more or less even strokes of colors which in turn drip paint, like syrup. This is a voluptuous painting, its grid about to melt down, it seems, into pure, irresistible paint.”
--Lilly Wei, from the essay, “Geometry Reloaded,” NY Arts, April 2005
“Mattera revels in the medium’s stained-glass-like luminosity. She’s a colorist whose principal concern is how tones interact and play off one another….Throughout, there’s a sense that light is powering these works.”
--Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, December 10, 2004
“Mattera’s play of color and luminosity is beguiling.”
--Rachel Strutt, Arts Media (Boston), March 2004
“Minimalist artists used the grid to downplay the sensuality of color and brushstrokes. The austerity helped focus the viewer’s attention on pigment as pigment, line as line—a primary concern of 60’s minimalism. Joanne Mattera has a different agenda. She uses grids the way classical poets used rigorous rhyme schemes: to impose elegant order onto an otherwise messy outpouring of emotion.”
--Staff review, The Week (New York City), April 18, 2003
“Mattera’s square panels light up the intimate space of the gallery…Mattera’s squares, dots and stripes are minimal, but just enough to hold her emotive colors together. Each painting is a distinct world.”
--Shawn Hill, Arts Media, April 15-May 15, 2003
“’Uttar’ is intimate, embodying the artist’s emotional response to the emotional world. Mattera is in love with color, with material, with process….For Mattera, the process of making art is a process of intuition working within a disciplined framework.”
--Flavia Rando, Ph.D., from the essay, "Uttar: Poetics of Materiality and Process," September, 2002
“Joanne Mattera is represented by nine paintings from her ‘Uttar’ series. The sweep in these one-foot-square paintings of encaustic on panel is in the vibrant color, paced by how the compositions grow from one piece to the next.”
--R.B. Strauss, Philadelphia Daily Local News , May 4, 2002
“One of the nation’s premier encaustic specialists.”
--John Carlos Villani, The Arizona Republic, November 18, 2001
“Mattera’s expert manipulation of beeswax in encaustic creates works of finesse and subtlety.”
--Staff review, The Philippine Star, June 5, 2000
“Despite the complex formal relations present in these works, the overall tone is intuitive rather than cerebral and defines Mattera as a particularly adept representative of poetic intelligence.”
--Jerry Cullum, Art in America, March, 2000
“Encaustic, the successive layering of melted colored wax, is one of the world’s oldest ways of putting down pigment on a surface. New York artist Joanne Mattera finds ways to wring contemporary content from the method. Many of her works start with the almost universal theme of the modernist grid, wrenching the grid asunder in various energized and interesting ways….Mattera succeeds in achieving many visual outcomes with a limited range of materials, producing works in which every scratch and drip yield something different.”
--Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 17, 1999
“Joanne Mattera…employs a grid-based field for her sensuous abstract encaustic paintings. She works with a classic formula of beeswax colored with oil-based dispersion pigments to build up as many as twenty layers of translucent paint. The surface is further enriched through incising lines into which pigment is rubbed, making marks with oil stick or oil pastel, or scraping to reveal previous strata.”
--Gail Stavitsky, curator, Montclair Art Museum, from the catalog, "Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America," 1999
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