Sascha Mallon: Innen Welten – Inner Worlds

The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum will reopen on-site galleries this November with two solo exhibitions; one of them by Sascha Mallon titled Innen Welten – Inner Worlds. The exhibition, presented in half of WAAM’s main gallery, opens Friday, November 13th and continues through February 1, 2021 with WAAM’s new limited hours of Friday through Sunday from 12-5 pm. Sascha Mallon was chosen for a solo exhibition by the juror Kristen Dodge, the owner and director of September Gallery in Hudson, NY.

Sascha Mallon creates site-specific installations that combine groupings of small ceramic sculptures and wall paintings. Her work is predominantly about the cycle of life, and within that context her sculptures serve as pictograms, carriers of hidden messages, and memento mori. She creates dreamlike worlds whose narratives illustrate relationships, transitions, and dichotomies such as life/death. Her approach to making work is intuitive and spontaneous, and she is inspired by her thoughts and memories as well as the world around her. 

For her solo exhibition Inner Worlds at The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Mallon has made hundreds of porcelain sculptures representing human figures, objects, plants, insects, animals, and more. Starting on the right side of the gallery, the exhibition leads viewers in a spiral path through various narratives and themes. The first section is characterized by spaciousness and neutral colors, with works that reference lightness and fragility. A lone figure sits on a shelf jutting out from the wall next to sculptures of a spine, bones, lace, and feathers. Mallon explains that this section of the show is about clarity, inner space, focusing on what matters the most, and letting go of material things that can weigh us down. 

As the viewer makes their way around the corner of the gallery, there is a group of work relating to the female form and to bowls, vases, and other vessels, some containing figures inside. The theme here is of openness and holding or providing space. The next section contains the work Inner Worlds, a wall installation containing small sculptures of the human form with designs painted inside. Mallon describes the imagery in these works as symbolic paintings of different emotions, afflictions, nightmares, and desires. There are also numerous sculptures of moths, a grouping of chrysalises, and a woman covered in a cloak of moths. Following Inner Worlds is a collection of works that refer to fairy tales and the forest. There is a surreal quality to Mallon’s work, with figures covered by flowers and insects, an unusual sense of scale, and bodies opening up to reveal scenes inside. Plants and animals are featured prominently in her work, with nature symbolizing the mysterious space where humans and the wilderness meet. 

The final section of the exhibition is the most colorful, with more female figures, bright red poppies, burning houses, and fire. Mallon’s works in this part of the show reference strong emotions such as anger and passion, impermanence, and destructive tendencies. In the middle of the gallery is a large circular work five feet in diameter that contains a figure of a woman surrounded by numerous small sculptures of flowers and insects. This work serves a positive centerpiece that holds all the other pieces together.  As the work in Innen Welten – Inner Worlds suggests, we are living in a time of extremes, from the forced isolation and insecurity of a global pandemic to political and social unrest. However, Mallon wants to remind viewers that as human beings we are all connected by a common desire to be safe and happy.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Sascha Mallon has exhibited her work in Austria, the USA, Taiwan, and Germany. Recently her work was included in Radius 50 at the Woodstock Artist Association and Museum, where she also will have a solo show in 2020. She was included in the  Art of the North East show at Silvermine Galleries and the The Edge Effect at the Katonah Museum of Art. Recently she had a solo exhibition at Walnut Hill Fine Art, Hudson, NY where she created a large installation made of ceramics, yarn, and wall painting. Her work was included in recent group exhibitions at Gormley Gallery/Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore, MD; LAB Space, Hillsdale, NY; and the ELY Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT; Gallery Anna25, Berlin, Germany; Attleboro Museum,NY, Penn State University, State College, PA; Garrison Arts Center, Garrison, NY; Kunstleben Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Front Room Gallery and A.I.R. Gallery, NY, NY; Barrett Arts Center, Poughkeepsie, NY. In 2017 Sascha was invited to participate in a residency and two-person exhibition at Soulangh Artist Village, Tainan, Taiwan sponsored by Cope NYC and the Tainan Department of Cultural Affairs and the Taiwanese American Arts Council. In 2018 she won first prize at the Garrison Arts Center for her work in the 2018 exhibition 2 ½ D. Sascha studied art therapy at ISSA/ School for Art Therapy in Austria, and she is currently an artist in residence at Mount Sinai at the Oncology and Hematology and at the Bone Marrow Transplant in New York City. She grew up in Austria, traveled throughout Europe and the US, and now resides in Beacon, NY with her daughter, her husband, and her dog.

Juror for WAAM’s 2020 solo exhibitions – Kristen Dodge, owner and director of September Gallery in Hudson, NY