Visual Artist Marianne Barcellona grew up in Dallas, earned her B.A. from Oberlin College, and then moved to New York City, where for 30 years she enjoyed a successful career as a freelance editorial photographer. A People Magazine Contributing Photographer, she also completed regular assignments for other major publications, including The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, and Money, also traveling the globe for Fortune 500 corporations, humanitarian organizations, major cultural institutions, and her own personal work.
In the late 1990’s Barcellona temporarily set aside her photography to focus on fine art by earning a 3-year Certificate in Painting from The New York Studio School. Since then she has managed dual careers, with an emphasis on painting, led intensive professional Drawing and Landscape Collage Workshops in Canada and Iceland, and been invited for ten consecutive years to present Visiting Artist Master Classes to Harvard's incoming freshmen.
Barcellona's work has been included in over 100 exhibitions and she has been the recipient of Fellowships at eleven internationally renowned Artist Residencies. Currently she lives and works in New York City.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings and collages are conversations with myself, attempts to understand my place in the world, and my responses to life in front of me.
I’ve long been drawn to densely tangled, barren, and decimated terrains and seascapes that evoke existential discomfort. Images that work their way into my art come from lands I’ve visited, books I’m reading, television news, and simple experiences from my daily life.
Thick oil paint and torn, jagged shards of paper exhilarate me as they interact, coming together in ways that often surprise me. I find change exciting, and tend to constantly re-work pieces, causing them to have layered intensity. I'm always interested in process, how a work evolves, and value work that shows the the pentimenti and history of its coming into being.
So many artists inspire me and continue to nourishe my spirit and soul,. Their work allows me to feel part of a tribe and tradition greater than myself: Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Max Beckmann, Lucian Freud, Giorgio Morandi, Leon Kossoff, Gerhard Richter, Richard Diebenkorn, Forrest Bess, Milton Avery, Marsden Hartley, Sidney Nolan, Johannes Kjaraval, Andreas Eriksson, Mamma Andersson, Wendy Gittler, Janice Nowinski, Matthew Wong, James Merlin, Luc Tuymans, Peter Doig – just to name a few…