Ohio artist uses variety of techniques, styles

Visitors to Ohio University Southern’s main campus in Ironton will get the chance to take in the work of an accomplished Ohio artist.

Acrylic piece by Cincinnati-based artist Rick Mallette will be on display in the school’s gallery until Thursday, March 21.

Mallette, a Michigan native, attended Delta College, Western Michigan University and School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to Ohio, where he continues to make art.

He visited OUS on Feb. 21 to deliver a talk for the exhibit’s opening.

Mallette specializes in wall drawings, paintings hand-cut Mylar and traditional and digital drawings.

The exhibit at OUS features abstract acrylic paintings on wood, as well as pieces from his snowman series, which feature painted figures on photographic postcards.

The paintings on display are from his past few years of work and feature a theme of “Heads” and “Couples.”

“I work quickly, with no preconceptions, searching for imagery in the medium, which surprises me, both formally and conceptually, with an ear to the metaphorical possibilities in abstracting the human head and figure,” Mallette says of his work in the exhibit’s accompanying artist statement.

Venues that have exhibited Mallette’s work include the RX Gallery, in Chicago, the Southgate House Gallery, in Covington, Kentucky, the Muskegon Museum of Art, in Michigan, and the Weston Art Gallery, in Cincinnati.

One of piece was also exhibited in the house used for MTV’s “The Real World” during its 11th season in Chicago in 2001.

 

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