March 2, 2020 - May 3, 2020

Garden Fragments features a collection of recent paintings, sculptures, and works on paper.

"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain." - Thoreau

The work in this show invites you to stop and take a closer look at the ordinary and non-spectacular fauna that surrounds most of our lives. To do this, I mix up painterly, cartoony, and diagrammatic approaches which I use to draw attention to the fragile relationship we have with our ecosystem. Whether it be based on the dried remnants of last year’s garden or visual memories I collect from a winter walk in the park, I combine observation and imagination to provide an insight into my everyday interaction with nature. -Maria Napolitano

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The quote by Thoreau that Maria included in her writing is close to how I would describe my experience of looking at Maria's work. From what perspective should one look at nature? Very close up or from a distance? With one's eyes or through a lens of one's own making? What does a plant look like in inked silhouette, seen through layers of translucent paper? How does it appear as an abstracted shape on canvas with paint? Or in the frame of a small petri dish? As she shows us, there are many ways to look and keep us looking. Questions are being asked as she inspects details of nature, and structures them into diagrams, graphs, and illustrations.

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Biography

Maria Napolitano lives and works in Providence, RI. She received an M.F.A. in Painting from Syracuse University and a B.F.A. in Painting from UMass Dartmouth. In 2013, Maria was the recipient of a painting grant from The Artist Resource Trust of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. In 2012 she received The Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant in Painting from the Provincetown Art Museum. She was awarded the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Individual Fellowship in Drawing in 2011 and in Painting in 2004 and 1981. Her work is in the permanent collection of the RISD Museum, Fidelity Investments, and numerous private art lovers.

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For information about the artist and her work visit: www.marianaolitano.com

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Interview with Maria Napolitano and Barbara Owen via email March, 2020

Barbara Owen: Can you tell me a little bit about your background? When did you first become aware that you wanted to make art? Did you make art as a child? What is the first thing you made where you realized that it was art?

Maria Napolitano: I was born in Providence to a working-class family of Italian descent. The only exposure I had to any kind of art as a young person was through paintings and statuary I saw at church and the one time I was picked from my grade school class to go on a school trip to the RISD Museum.

I am not sure why I have always been interested in art but I have always been a creative person with a big imagination.

As a child, I was constantly drawing, whether it be my favorite cartoon characters or sketching along with John Nagy and his “learn to draw” tv show.

I think it wasn’t until college that I thought in terms of really making ‘art.’

For me, art has always been a journey of discovery.

BO: What inspires you now?

MN: Walking, reading, gardening and seeing work and shows by other artists.

BO: Who are your biggest influences?

MN: I have had many in the forty years of working. Here is a sampling of the artists who have inspired me: Giotto, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg, the feminist art movement of the seventies that broke down the boundaries between high and low art, Philip Guston, Ree Morton, Squeak Carnwath, Amy Sillman, and Thomas Nozkowski.

BO: How do you navigate the art world?

MN: I have always managed to have art shows for most of my career and have been part of galleries at different times.

I see as much contemporary art as I can.

I read about art and artists and I have a circle of artist friends that I try to see regularly.

BO: You started as a painter, and now your work seems to be evolving from 2-dimensional to 3 dimensional. What prompted this evolution and where do you see it going?

MN: Even though I graduated in the painting department, I never believed that art-making should have strict categories. I have always explored the use of different materials in 2d and 3d formats. I have worked in clay, plaster, found objects, both natural and synthetic, collage, and shaped canvases as well as painting and works on paper. I think the seventies art world opened up to work that went beyond the traditional art on canvas and it fit with my sensibility.

BO: How does your work relate to current social and political issues, if you think it does?

MN: Visually it doesn’t. It is more of an antidote to the enormity of socio-political issues that have been part of my experience since the sixties.

BO: What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?

MN: My dried plant collections, various printing rollers, and the digital radio that lets me listen to classical music from Venice for free.