Torrington’s Five Points Gallery hosts Danielle Mailer’s ‘body Language, 2013’

By Shako Liu,
The Register Citizen

TORRINGTON > A new downtown art show opening Friday by artist Danielle Mailer brought many locals out of their homes despite of the bone-chilling weather. Snow was still piling up on the street, but it was just heating up inside Five Points Gallery.



 
Featuring two art shows, “body Language, 2013” by Mailer and “Cut and Paste; the art of 21st Century collage and assemblage” curated by Michael Shortell, the art show added a unique stroke of color in the city engulfed by white snow.

As the featured artist in the East Gallery, Mailer said her influences ranged from Matisse to Klimt, to Miriam Shapiro, to Niki De Saint Phalle. Mailer creates dynamic works which offer her own interpretation of the patterned silhouette. In her new show, her figures and animals, through the painting of symbols and mixing of visual imagery, reveal an unusual perspective. Her inspiration came from the space of the gallery, she said.

The most meaningful piece for hers is “The Muses,” Malier said, a 11-foot-tall figure of three dancing females with her father’s quotes written on the faces which she sees as her self-portrait. One of the 
quotes on the faces said “every moment of one’s existence, one will grow into more or retreating into less.”

“These are the quotes that I grew up with, they are my internal fabrics,” Mailer said, “When I think about what to put up on the faces, I realize that makes the most sense to me, the most organic.”

Five Points Gallery is a non-profit gallery showcasing high-caliber contemporary art of emerging and established local and national artists. Executive Director Judith McElhone said the gallery grew out of a temporary summer venue in 2012. In 2013, it was expanded to the current space. It features new shows on a monthly basis.

“Danielle is one of those amazing best artists as our artists from Paper New England,” McElhone said, “[I hope people in Torrington] can be uplifted by the arts, to enjoy it, to understand it’s for them.”

In 2013, Mailer was named the featured artist at the Litchfield Jazz Festival, held each year at the Goshen Fairgrounds. She currently teaches at Indian Mountain School in Lakeville.

Mailer will be interviewed by Tino Galluzzo, owner of The White Gallery, Lakeville at 6 pm on Jan. 24 in the Artist Talk even in Five Point Gallery. For more information, visit fivepointsgallery.org. For more information on Mailer, visit her website at DanielleMailer.com.