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Marjorie Hellman

USA
Grand Prize Award Recipient
Purchase Award Recipient
Marjorie Hellman

Marjorie Hellman resides near Providence, RI. She was raised between Philadelphia and New York, and studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design, (European Honors Program, BFA Painting, 1971), Cranbrook Academy of Art, (Graduate Painting Program), and completed an MFA at Syracuse University, where she remained in upstate New York for over 25 years, teaching studio art at the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the Northeast and North Carolina.

Artist Statement

My work has undergone a number of changes over the past 45 years, but what remains constant is the need to question how to navigate through and comprehend life. My physical environment, reactions to things I read, listen to and look at are the sources from which I draw. My passion for color continues to be at the core of why I paint. Not only is it the formal element that propels my examination of the relationship between light, form and space, it is also the aspect of my work that brings me continual surprise. In making the paint surface as flat as possible, I attempt to create a pure and direct experience between object and viewer, one which is both enveloping and contemplative. Currently, I am strongly affected by living and working in an early 20th century mill, in a once thriving industrial area, where old textile mills still line the streets. My ideas stem in part from memories of fleeting glimpses of dramatic shadows projected on my walls during the night. These ephemerals enter my dream state, then meld with other stored images that comprise my visual language. Each new piece begins with a simple line drawing and a small start-up palette, evolving with no preconceived notions, until the end reveals itself. Like for so many of the artists whose work I admire, the greatest sense of accomplishment comes in the act of doing.

For my paintings, I work on hard substrates, (currently, aluminum panels), applying acrylic paints as flatly as possible in multiple coats to achieve an opaque, yet luminous, brushstroke-free surface. Characteristic of my work is the way color development creates the illusion that shapes and forms appear transparent or translucent, suggesting ambiguous relationships of structure, space, light and atmosphere. Work dating from 2017 reflects the influence of my current physical environment, a once thriving industrial area where remaining historic architectural structures surround me in shafts of light, shadow and overlapping diagonals. In 2019, I began making shaped pieces, which for me are a natural progression in presenting the illusion of form within form, and painting as object.

Education
1978 MFA Syracuse University

1972-73 Graduate Painting Program, Cranbrook Academy of Art
1971 BFA Rhode Island School of Design - European Honors Program

Selected Exhibitions

2019
Annual Group Show, Candita Clayton Gallery, Pawtucket, RI
Book Cover Show, Paper Nautilus, Providence, RI

2018
Night into Day, solo exhibition, ArtProv Gallery, Providence, RI
Newport Annual Members’ Juried Exhibition, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

2017
It’s the Little Things, ArtProv Gallery, Providence, RI PERSPECTIVES, Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI

2016
SURFACE TENSION, Main Gallery, The University of RI
OUTSIDE/ IN, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI
OPPOSITES, Open Juried Regional Exhibition: ALRI/ The VETS Gallery, Providence, RI

2015
Art League Rhode Island Elected Artist Annual Members Exhibition, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
GEOMETRY, National Juried Exhibition, Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI
Pawtucket Foundation Prize Exhibit, The Mill Gallery, Pawtucket, RI 2015
Annual Members Exhibition, recipient of the Aristide B. Cianfarani Award , Providence Art Club, Providence, RI

2014
110th Little Pictures Show, Providence Art Club, Providence,RI
Patterns and Perspectives, ArtProv Gallery, Providence, RI

Pawtucket Foundation Prize Exhibit, The Mill Gallery, Pawtucket, RI
50 YEARS; Juried Exhibition,The Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI
PERIPHERY: RISD Alumni Exhibition, Keeseh Studios,
Providence, RI Juried by Cade Tompkins
Newport Annual Members Juried Exhibition, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI


2014
Annual Members Exhibition, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI

2013
Annual Open Juried Exhibition, The Mill Gallery, Pawtucket Arts Collaborative, Pawtucket, RI

2002
Recent Work, Solo Exhibition, Wynn Bone Gallery, St. Augustine, FL 2001
Endings and Beginnings, Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC

2000
Asheville in the Abstract, Zone One Gallery, Asheville, NC 


1995
Links and Layers, Visual Arts Exhibition Program, St. Mark’s Church-in- the Bowery, NY, NY


1994
Rutgers National Works on Paper, Stedman Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ


1993
School of Art Faculty Exhibition
, Museum of Art, Munson- Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY


1992
Susquehanna Regional Art Exhibition, Roberson Museum, Binghamton, NY
Biennial, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY

1991
Anita Shapolsky Gallery, NY, NY
Artists of Central NY, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams- Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, curated by Sydney Waller

The Infinite Variety of Abstract Art, New Visions Gallery, Ithaca, NY
Metaphysical Manifestation
, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, curated by Everett Mayo Adelman

1990
The State of Upstate: New York Women Artists, organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, curated by Nina Felshin; traveled to the New York State Museum, Albany, NY; Burchfield Art Center, Buffalo, NY

1989
Upstate Invitational, Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester, NY

Roarr! The Prehistoric in Contemporary Art, New York State Museum, Albany, NY

1988
Honoring Women, Mohawk Valley Community College, Utica, NY


1987
Two Person Show, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY


1986
Two Person Show, Gannett Gallery, SUNY College of
Technology, Utica, NY


1985
Gender and Gesture, Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University,
Hamilton, NY
Five New Paintings, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Insti tute, Utica, NY


1984
Biennial, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
New York State
Women’s Invitational, Richard F. Brush
Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY


1982
Constructions and Works on Paper, Gallery 53,
Cooperstown, NY


1980
Six Women, List Arts Center, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY


1975
Artists of Central NY, Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor
Institute, Utica, NY

Two Person Show, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY

Residencies
1996 Fellow, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar, VA Artist in Residence, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Woodstock, NY

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