ABOUT MY ART
Statement
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I paint figures navigating proximity, identity, and authority—moments where the private becomes visible and uncomfortable within shared space. Working in oil, I build layered surfaces and saturated color that push the scene beyond description into a heightened, immersive register. Compositions often compress distance, placing the viewer close to the action; animals, everyday objects, and fragments of architecture function as cues, shaping how the image is read while keeping interpretation open.
My process is cumulative. Drawing establishes structure, and successive layers of paint recalibrate temperature, rhythm, and scale. I keep revisions visible so the surface carries time and decision. The work rewards sustained looking: forms resolve and shift, relationships between figures change, and the narrative continues to unfold. I want the paintings to hold ambiguity with intention. They invite viewers to recognize their own role as witnesses, interpreters, and participants, and to ask where they stand within the narrative—what they bring to the scene in terms of assumptions, sympathies, and blind spots. In a moment when quick judgments harden into polarized positions, I use painting to make space for reflection, contradiction, and multiple viewpoints. Answers remain provisional. |
I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.” –Picasso 
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Bio
Elisabetta Marmolo (born in Italy; based in Maryland) is a painter working primarily in oil. Her work uses figuration and narrative to create psychologically charged images in which cropped compositions, saturated color, assertive drawing, and visible brushwork place the viewer in close confrontation with ambiguity and invite sustained looking. Marmolo has presented solo exhibitions at the Gandhi Memorial Center and Crossroads Gallery at Goodwin House, and has exhibited at the Katzen Arts Center. Download CV: |
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