Pauline Galiana
Pauline Galiana is an assemblage, installation, video, and mixed media artist, photographer, draftswoman, and printmaker who has exhibited extensively in the Northeastern United States as well as across the country. Recent solo exhibitions in New York include venues such as Ed Adler Gallery, MSK Gallery, and the Sloan Kettering Center. Group shows recently conducted include Westbeth Gallery, Artspace, Sojourner Gallery, Westbeth Gallery, and LES Ecology Center in New York City, The Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, New Jersey, and Kay Daugherty Gallery in Solomons, Maryland. Publications include ARTSPACE Catalogue, Annamarie Sculpture Garden and Amphitheatre Catalogue, the Jersey Journal, and Superpresent Magazine.
The varied body of work which explores many mediums and subject matter remains steeped in process and a meditative state of mind while conducting the pieces. Often containing the depiction of circles and spheres, Pauline expresses art which contains a sense of unification and oneness with the finished result as well as the work in progress. Usually containing pale and quiet coloring with muted tones, the pieces are not meant to stand or pop out to the viewer but reel in a quiet, intimate reflection.
Assemblages created by Pauline convey patterned forms meticulously and carefully constructed from shredded print material. The sheer labor in construction of these pieces remains massive as they are assembled in a way to appear as if fabricated by a machine. Pauline’s photography and printmaking tends to study close up surfaces and texture, breaking down embodiments of form into smears of monochromatic substances. In particular, the photography depicting frozen glass may resemble an abstracted painting or fogged scenery. Her installations remain her most conceptual pieces as the material conveys an idea directly related to the subject matter depicted in a way which evokes solace and solitude.
Lamentations (pictured above) is an installation which depicts carefully crafted drawings on small branches of natural wood. These mastercopies are depictions of classical subject matter directly related to Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces. Often depicting crying eyes or solemn faces, the twigs holding them seem fragile and impermanent, as if ready to rot away with their small stature. The transience and frailty of the piece along with carefully crafted attention to detail entails a work meant to be enjoyed in the moment, rather than studied through time. Lamentations installation was created to provoke emotions and ponder the relationship between nature and art.
Pauline Galiana engages the audience to enter her silent realm of intricate design and relentless craftsmanship. Most of the works convey a steep contemplation, striving for perfection and nuance while other pieces indulge in improvisation and expression. Through many mediums and crossing between representation, pattern, and abstraction, Pauline offers a variety of approaches for herself and her audience to explore intimate conversations with art. Pauline’s work can be described as a discreet and approachable display of sophistication and refinement.
