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Venice Biennale 2019

Marietta Leis | March 5, 2019 - 4:39 pm

The Silent Road, Acrylic on Tyvek™

Personal Structures
An Exhibition

presented by
The European Cultural Centre & the GAA Foundation

2019 Venice Biennale
Preview: May 9 – 10
Exhibit: May 11 – November 24
Palazzo Mora, rm #218, Strada Nova

Leis’ artist statement for The Silent Road

 

The Silent Road

Marietta Patricia Leis

 

The Silent Road is a dialogue between painting and sculpture. It is a road that leads in two directions, reaching upward toward the ancient beamed ceiling of the Palazzo Mora and winding downward to its staircase landing. The Silent Road was inspired by my time in Iceland during the dark months of the long Icelandic winter. The treeless, volcanic, landscape revealed the earth’s curved horizon, confronting me with a stark image of all that is infinite—both visually and metaphorically. My acute sense of this fascinating and haunting place provided fertile ground for germination of The Silent Road.

 

I have always made art using a variety of mediums, choosing those that best serve and amplify my intentions. For The Silent Road, graphite painted on Tyvek ™ (a paper-like plastic sheeting used to insulate houses) evoked the shimmering darkness of Iceland’s volcanic rock.  I hand burnished the graphite until it radiated that luster. Thus, the Tyvek ™ is magically transformed, as old traditions meet modern technologies on The Silent Road.

 

My handwork has traced every inch of surface on The Silent Road, marking a path and leaving a record of my artist’s journey for others to follow. The Road’s reductive surface texture offers hidden complexities for the viewer to ferret out—an opportunity to engage with the work without straining to understand it—simply traveling The Road with me for a journey in silent contemplation.

 

In today’s noisy world, we can become distracted, numb to our deepest natures. The road to authenticity is by its very nature traveled in solitude. It is an internal road that, with patience, can lead deep into the core of our being. As we each embark on the journey to this rich and fertile place, we can discover a common thread of the shared humanity that binds us.

 

My intention is for my art to be palpable, transmitting a sensation of adventure, beauty and peace. I invite you to travel the undulating Silent Road—welcoming your own perceptions and experiences.


Photographic reference work – a frozen silent road from Leis’ time in Iceland

 

Backstory and process

During my career I have found that professional relationships as well as the resulting exhibitions, articles, or residencies take patience and a maturation period—this one seven years! The career aspect of an artist’s life echoes, in part, the necessary maturation of the art-making process itself.

The Venice opportunity is a prime example. My first contact with the Global Arts Affairs Foundation that is sponsoring my work at Venice was in 2012. A Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer, whose work I very much admire, was featured in an art magazine that told of his exhibiting during the Venice Biennale with GAA. Because GAA exhibited the work of Rene, who has a like sensibility to my own, I contacted them to learn more about their organization. And now all these years later my art is in their exhibition, Personal Structures, during this year’s Venice Biennial.

The Silent Road evolved over a one and half year period. GAA and I explored several locations in the Piazza Bembo and Mora until I selected the one that I felt gave me the most opportunity and challenges. Then there were several sketches with that location in mind. These always told of the ‘road’ but varied in size and form until one felt right for a beginning point. Once I had that form in mind I researched materials eventually moving away from paper to Tyvek™ for durability. Prototypes large and small were made to test the graphite and the burnishing, how to keep the backside clean with the process of dirty burnishing-how the Tyvek™would drape and to also conclude the exact dimensions for the piece.

The slow and laborious but zen-joyful execution of painting and burnishing the 60’ x 34” piece took several months and culminated in a test hanging at a local theatre (thanks Highland and NDI). By then I had a solid team of my photographer-assistant, Stefan Jennings Batista, my colleague in arms, Heidi Pollard, the sculptor and installer, Ian Jones and my husband David an all-purpose helper and videographer—who all contributed to the success of the trial installation. The wonder of resulting piece exceeded my sketch! Listening to the work itself and not being catholic about the sketch led to better possibilities.

Afterwards installation instructions were written and the packing and shipping commenced. Voilà it now enters the auspices of the Venice Biennale 2019.

ENGRAINED: ODE TO TREES exhibited at WNMU


Marietta’s multimedia solo show Engrained: Ode to Trees exhibited though February in the McCray Gallery at Western New Mexico University as part of the Milner Women in the Arts Lecture Series.



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Entering the New Year of 2019

Marietta Leis | November 30, 2018 - 2:51 pm

This year will finally see the art, that has been my main effort over the past year and a half, culminate in it’s first exhibit at Western New Mexico University, Silver City, opening February 7th  The heartfelt theme of trees and forests-beautiful and endangered is one that demanded my toolbox of media—so there is much to see. You can thumb through the exhibition catalogue by clicking on the ISSUU booklet below. 

The essay in the booklet is by the gifted writer, Ann Landi,
and reproduced here for your reading:

 

Marietta Patricia Leis: Engrained: Ode to Trees

 

In the course of a long career that has taken her from New York to Los Angeles and finally to Albuquerque, NM, Marietta Patricia Leis has mastered just about any medium at her disposal—printmaking, sculpture, painting, video, and photography. Her subjects have often been inspired by her travels worldwide: to Scotland, Southeast Asia, Greece, Iceland, and other far-flung spots. The experiences she gathers from place, whether it’s the humid green of the tropical jungle or the billowing clouds and black-velvet nights of the Scottish Highlands, become distilled into the different series she’s pursued over the years. The common thread is that Leis brings to all her works qualities of elegant understatement, a thorough knowledge of craft, and an approach that marries thoughtful restraint with a sensuous feel for her materials.

For her latest project, Engrained: Ode to Trees, Leis found inspiration quite literally in her own backyard, when a 30-foot-high spruce tree on her property in Albuquerque, NM, died shortly after she moved in. Parts of that tree have made their way into the Engrained series: slices from the trunk, lovingly varnished and stained, stand like proud sentinels on Lucite shelves in Gentrification I and Gentrification II. Fissures I and Fissures II, a pair of ink-relief prints, and the sculptures Splintered I and Splintered II similarly find their origins in that same fallen tree, as does Keepsake #2, an image burned into linen from a section of the trunk. When a mimosa tree, also on her property, lost a big branch during a windstorm, Leis used it as the source material for the series of sculptures called Traces, which stand in front of two large oil paintings, Symbiosis I and Symbiosis II, densely saturated with the bright fresh green color we associate with trees just coming back to life in early spring. The installation seems to juxtapose the living against the dead, and speaks to the possibilities for renewal and rebirth.

Specific trees may have provided the inspiration for many works in the show, but Leis’ travels—and her self-description as an “outed tree hugger”—have made her sensitive to the plight of trees in general. She’s flown over the Amazon and witnessed the burning of rain forests; she’s seen firsthand Iceland’s barren landscape, the result of devastation by early settlers; and, like the rest of us, she’s concerned about the clear cutting, wild fires, and deforestation that are quickly eroding our landscape. The videos in the Engrained were all made in Finland, where she had an artist’s residency above Arctic Circle, and show how forest after forest has succumbed to destruction.

But the message in Leis’ methods—if indeed we need a message—is far from hopeless. There is ghostly beauty in the 82-inch-tall photos of the Evanescents series, joy in the sprightly arrangements of paintings that make up Tree, and throughout the series reminders of how much pleasure we get from the colors, textures, and presence of those mute and stalwart citizens who share our planet. In examining all the qualities of “treeness”—from seeds and leaves to the battered husk that remains after a tree dies—Leis gives us tangible proof of the loveliness of these silent gifts of nature along with intimations of how barren our world would be without them.

Ann Landi

November 2018

Ann Landi is the founder and editor of Vasari21.com and a contributing editor of ARTnews.

 

As an extra enticement here are some photos of the Shou Sugi Ban method of burning wood that we used in the making of the Remembrance pieces in the exhibit:

Photographs by Stefan Jennings Batista

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PAUSING: A BOOK OF ART AND POETRY

Marietta Leis | February 16, 2017 - 11:31 am

Available at amazon.com

 

In the cold and rainy month of March 2011, I was an Artist in Residence at the Morris Graves Foundation: The Lake, in Northern California. It is a place of grace, peace and beauty that encouraged me to press my life’s pause button. Living and working in this setting inspired me to think in verse. These poems reflect my state of being or my observations as I passed through my days painting there in tranquility. The simple passing of my days resulted in this work. I hope you sense the simplicity in this volume.        —MPL

Pausing is quite remarkable and beautiful. Some poems tug at me as works of art. What is evident in these pages are poems that are fun, moving and insightful. Engaging poems that feel right at home with the quality and brilliance of Marietta’s visual art.
—Dale Biron, author, Why We Do Our Daily Practices

Elegant in its simplicity, Pausing is a collection of art and poetry that responds to experience in a deeply aesthetic way.  Leis gives us the peace of how light strikes water, shades of color, the emergence of blue. It is an unusually beautiful book-we are fortunate to share its vision.
—Miriam Sagan, author of Seven Places in America: A Poetic Sojourn

Marietta’s poems are full of quietness, stillness and the calmness of a lake. I love the book’s simplicity of words and art and am especially thankful for the poem Japan’s Havoc. Pausing is a treasure.
—Taro Aizu, author of My Fukushima

READINGS:

Saturday, Feb. 25th from 1-3 pm
Weyrich Gallery
2935-D Louisiana NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110

Stay tuned for more readings!

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Exhibiting Ice in North Carolina

Marietta Leis | October 5, 2016 - 3:00 am

           We were so happy to be in North Carolina’s beautiful Appalachian Mountains in July exhibiting our multimedia exhibition, “Melting: Marietta Patricia Leis + David Vogel”. Escaping the New Mexico three-digit heat wave was wonderful but so was our appreciation for the lush greenery of the trees and rain forests that greeted us. A-1.NC SCENEThe almost daily spurts and pours of rain hydrated us as we enjoyed the towns of Ashland, Boone and Blowing Rock. Boone, named for Daniel Boone who blazed a trail over the Mountains into Tennessee, is the home of Appalachian State University and their Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. A-2.Ashville_2585The Turchin is an elegant renovated church with 5 current gallery spaces, auditorium and offices for a great staff. Mary Anne Redding is the Assistant Director and distinguished curator whom I have luckily worked with 3 incredibly rewarding times previously.

       Mary Anne curated “Melting”. This exhibition is a reflection on our expedition to the Antarctic. The exhibition that ended August 6 melded David’s photographs and my art into a cohesive presentation of our experience. During both the reception and ourA-4.Heartspace 6 artist talk, David and I met many people from Boone’s supportive and interested community.

       Our statement for “Melting” and photos of the exhibition follow:

       Drawn to Antarctic because of its unique position on our planet, ‘the end of the earth’ so to speak, we ventured to this primal place. Being hurled through the Drake Passage where three oceans meet by the worst storm of the season made us quickly aware of nature’s force. We were very fortunate to be on a Russian Expedition ship with a Russian crew with much experience and skill.

       On our third day we awakened at three in the morning to the most magnificent sunrise reflecting on icebergs and the snowy peninsular. There were soft yellow, magenta and apricot colors with an incredible luminosity because of the non-polluted almost translucent skies. In the first days of of our excursion we saw nature at polar (pun intended) opposite extremes first dark and violent and then delicate and heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

A-3.M&D       We felt so grateful that we were to have this experience in a region so special, so little touched, so regal in its natural beauty. It did not disappoint. In fact it excelled all our A-5 Transference Installationexpectations. The magnificence of the glaciers and mountains and yes even the crevices were beyond anything we had seen largely because they were raw, untouched. It was like being on a different planet-seeing things for the first time.

       We experienced the animal life like that as well. They were so uninhibited and unafraid of us. Whales slept in the waters like logs undisturbed by us, penguins walked over us as we sat on the stony beaches, leopard seals went about their business of feasting on prey- we felt that we had been dropped into the Jurastic period and we could just observe natural life as they truly exist.

       There were strict rules that we gladly adhered to such as going through a foot wash with our boots each time we returned from shore and not ever touching or relating to the wildlife no matter how cuddly the Penguins were and more obvious things like never picking up and taking anything. The expedition was fierce in their commitment to protect this pristine place.
Pixels Installation

       When our expedition leader was asked why with his concern and love of nature was he bringing people to this primal place he replied, ‘if people see it and experience it they will work harder to protect it”. That resonated with us. Our art expresses the ‘feeling’ of place, the impressions—if people are drawn to beauty in our work they might be also drawn to contemplate the underlying issues of climate change and how to preserve the beauty of the Antarctic and our planet for generations to come.

 

 

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Two Exhibit Announcements:

 1. SURFACE

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Two groupings of my shaped paintings shown in “Melting” are going to be exhibited October 25-December 3 at my Denver gallery, Michael Warren Contemporary.  These will be part of a three-person exhibition with Jenene Nagy and Ramon Bonilla. I will be present at this terrific gallery Thursday November 17 at 5:30 to talk about the art and our Antarctic expedition. In my talk I will also be addressing our endangered planet that prompted the work.

2. WINTER BLUES AND SEASONAL HUES

       Actually it will be a two-fold Colorado opportunity to exhibit art that reflects my travels. Lincoln Center (in Fort Collins, 90 minutes from Denver) will host a 3-artist exhibit, “Winter Blues and Seasonal Hues” from November 18 through January 7, 2017. The other artists are Stefan Geissbuhler and Katharine McGuinness. My “Ascension” painting series and my watercolors both will be shown. These pieces were inspired by the Northern Lights that I experienced during my Artist Residency this past winter in Iceland. Two groupings from my “Shades” series depict the changing skies and waters during the changing winter light.
I will be present when the exhibit opens Friday November 18. There will an artist-guided gallery stroll 5-6:30 pm followed by a reception from 6:30-8 pm. If you’re in the vicinity of either of these galleries when I am there, I hope you come by!

 

 

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2016 International Exhibits

This year has been exciting for me to be invited to exhibit in several international art exhibitions this year. I support art crossing borders as I believe artists and viewers can have a common understanding through art. Here are some of the places my art has shown side by side with artists from all over the globe:
C-1.IRan_2438
C-3Macedonia
  • “Sea(s),” Ionion Center for the Arts, Kefalonia, Greece
  • “5 Years Fukushima,” d’Oude Winkel, Oostburg, Netherlands.
  • “Our Fukushima,” Museum of Kumanovo & House of Culture, Skopje, Macedonia.
  • “People and East Art,” Contemporary Art Museum of Ahvaz & Cultural Complex of Dezful, Iran.
  • “East Meets West,” Suwon Arts Center, South Korea.
  • “Park Fine Art International,” Galerie AM Park, Frankfurt, Germany.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Now I am looking forward to a sojourn to the colonial cities and art communities of Puebla and Oaxaca, Mexico. Stay tuned for my report.

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