Pen + Brush’s fall season will open with JUST LOVE, a solo exhibition by artist Michela Martello.  Born in Italy and a longtime resident of Brooklyn, Martello’s painting practice spans more than twenty years and uses symbology, history, textiles, and literature to translate themes of materiality, illusions, and dimensionality, especially as they relate to humanity and our daily lives.

Building on her oeuvre, new works created for JUST LOVE are inspired by the writings of Haruki Murakami and question our need for finite and singular meanings by bringing potent scenes and characters to life.  In The Entrance Stone (pictured above), we see Martello’s use of recognizable symbols as modes of meaning, here, Colonel Sanders floats above two figures as a metaphor for capitalism, politics, and in some cases, emptiness.  Contrasted with lesser-known characters from Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, who can be taken at face value, as they sit gathered around an ancient stone, intuiting, and communicating with each other on matters that involve hands, breath, smoke, and lighting bolts that reach beyond Colonel Sanders—beyond the canvas itself into another realm.

While Murakami lovers will be able to recognize the symbology from his literature these works are not just visual narratives.  They are an expression of the eternal quest by Martello, one that tells of our conflictual yet miraculous existence to create work that offers something true, universal, and open.  These works transform the heaviest parts of the human experience into possibility and light.

JUST LOVE will consist of 18 paintings on 14-foot-tall translucent fiber panels that will be suspended and torqued into sculptural forms.  This large-scale installation will allow viewers to walk within the panels to experience the painted side and around it to take in its ghost image on the reverse side of the sheer textile, further cementing the artist’s desire to allow multiple interpretations of her works. Here, Martello offers inspiration for the dreamer to dream and to use her work as a soft catalyst, a map, or perhaps a mirror.