Artist Statement
My earliest enthusiasms in painting reflect an abstract expressionist aesthetic. The painterly gesture, balance of composition, and unity of form are all possibilities inherent in the medium, and together with the element of surprise, are all important factors and influences.
My current practice is focused on exploring modern and contemporary abstract tendencies without surrendering the imperative initial figurative impulse. My work has a strong foundation in drawing, allowing me to improvise compositions that suggest natural forms. Through the exploratory nature of this process, I aim to extend my versatility and expressive range to convey the vulnerability and fragility of the human condition. Lately, the prominent thematic threads in my work have included crowds, battles, global conflicts, and protests as well as imagined urban and fantastic landscapes.
I want to make paintings that surprise me, that balance technique and the overall composition and retain a record of the painting's creation in the final image.
Biography
Marc Pelletier was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1957. He received his BFA from the University of Southern Maine in 1981 and earned a Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1983. In 1979 he studied at Whitelands College in London. In 1980 he spent a formative summer at the Skowhegan School of Art in his home state after being awarded the Marguerite Zorach Scholarship in Painting. Pelletier began making collages after he moved to Manhattan in 1983, and since then has participated in solo and group shows in NYC and Cherry Valley, NY.
CV
EDUCATION
1983
MFA, Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
1981
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculture
Skowhegan, ME
1980
BFA, University of Southern Maine
Portland, ME
1979
Whitelands College, Roehampton Institute
London, England
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2019 SAGA 85th Members Print Exhibition, Newark Public Library, Newark NJ.
2019 Blue, group exhibition, ArtGarage, Cooperstown, NY.
2018 Black and White, Cherry Branch Gallery, Cherry Valley, NY.
2017 Anima Animus, group exhibition, ArtGarage, Cooperstown, NY.
2017 Migration – Immigration, Cherry Branch Gallery, Cherry Valley, NY.
2014 Recent work, solo exhibition at Cherry Branch Gallery, Cherry Valley NY (catalog)
2000-2018 Annual Print Review, Art Students League, NYC
2013-2018 The Smithy Center for the Arts, Cooperstown, NY
2014 Neighbors, The Annex Gallery, Pleasant Brook, NY
2012 Meet the Artist, The American Hotel, Sharon Springs, NY
2012 Recent Work, Cherry Branch Gallery, Cherry Valley NY. One-man show
2005-2013 Etchings Art Students League, NYC
2005 Urgent Underground Gallery East Village NYC
2004 Audubon Artists, Salamagundi Club, New York City
2004 New Paintings, Metropolitan, Williamsburg, NY, One-man show.
2003 Breakwater Gallery, Provincetown, Mass.
2002-2003 Julie Heller Gallery, Provincetown, Mass.
2001 "New Work" Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Williamsburg, NYC, One-man show.
1999-2005 "Open Your Heart" Bailey House Benefit Auction, Puck Bldg, NYC
1998 "Seeing Money" The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
1998 "Skowhegan at Fifty, The Maine Legacy" Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine
1997 "Recent Paintings" GalleryXVI, NYC, One-man show.
1997 "Recent Paintings and Drawings" The Bar Gallery, NYC, One-man show.
1993 Hobe Sound North Gallery, Portland, Maine
1993 Wenniger Graphics Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts
1992 "Refiguring the Form" 101 Wooster Gallery,NYC
1992 "Body Double" La Mama Galleria, NYC
1991 "Fracture" Marymount Manhattan Gallery, NYC
1991 "Made in Maine" University of Southern Maine, Portland
1990 "Figure in the Landscape" Center Gallery, Gorham, Maine, One-man show.
1986 Group show at Virgil Gallery, NYC.
1985 Group show at Danceteria, NYC.
RESIDENCIES
1981 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
(Marguerite Zorach Memorial scholarship in Painting)