Mallory Stowe
Mallory Stowe is a contemporary figurative painter interested in anxiety and awe surrounding the natural world. The emotional and social truths depicted in her oil paintings are distorted by the inner drama of personal perception. Theatricality is central to her artistic practice. Painting in this way allows for the surface to exist as a kind of stage where characters form and become allegorical, their symbolism becoming potent. Humanness is reflected back to us in depictions of the brutal, sensitive, temporary and eternal.
After receiving her BFA from Ohio University in 2022, she is now a MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A recent finalist for the 2023 AXA Art Prize at the New York Academy of Art. She also received a juror award at the Women of Appalachia at Dairy Barns Art Center. Stowe teaches Drawing 1 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Collect Bean: What does growth mean to you?
Mallory Stowe: To me, growth means resisting complacency. As a narrative-based figure painter, I believe stories are vital to my practice. I think the work is stronger when there is nuance and ambiguity. I have been thinking a lot about “yes and...” statements in an effort to resist one-dimensional narratives. The stories we tell ourselves are easy to justify, but I think growing is always holding space for contradiction.
Collect Bean: Where are you currently finding inspiration?
Mallory Stowe: I have been finding inspiration in magical realism literature lately. Some great books I have recently read and are sneaking into my paintings are Saving Fish from Drowning, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and When We Were Birds. Also, Little Simz and Peter Cat Recording Co. always get me in a painting mood.
Collect Bean: What does your painting process look like from start to finish?
Mallory Stowe: My painting process from beginning to end varies. Usually, I begin with a sketch that comes from a place of feeling or an image I encounter that uneases me. From there, I make several sketches and gather and take reference images. Then, I stretch and prep the canvas or apply beeswax to a wooden panel. My first few layers of oil paint are large and loose, and then I tighten up areas of drama/depth. There is a lot of sitting 20 feet away and staring, sways between frustration and celebration, and a little dancing.
Collect Bean: What role does color play in your practice?
Mallory Stowe: Color operates in the work as a kind of cinematic filter, a signal to the viewer to suspend their notions of realism. Throughout my current body of work, there are recurring deep reds, ochres, and earthy greens. The uniformity of the color palette suggests a constructed or imagined world.
Collect Bean: What is something that you do to stay focused?
Mallory Stowe: To stay focused, I love to surround myself with other artists. This is one of the greatest things about my graduate program: being able to pop into friends' studios to talk, process, or decompress. Visits to museums and the library always reignite my draw to make images.
