Traces
by Gina Malek

September 2016 – June 2017

Curated by Deborah Cullen

Gina Malek was born in Rochester, Minnesota, and received her BFA from Indiana University’s Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts, Bloomington. She received her MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2015.

Malek’s paintings provide glimpses into the energy and stillness of domestic spaces. In her own words, she is “drawn to people who spend a lot of time in one place.” The artist not only observes, but also experiences and suggests through her brushstrokes. With expressive swathes of color and crucial touches of markmaking, she captures the body’s weight, tensions, awkwardness, and grace. Breaking down interiors into harmonic compositions, Malek envisions the human form at rest, struggling to walk, and in an intimate embrace.

Malek has held two exhibitions at Magic Beans Gallery, Berlin (2016) and was included in two exhibitions at E.Tay Gallery, New York in addition to an exhibition at the Judith Charles Gallery, New York (2015). She has exhibited at the Fisher Landau Center, Queens (2015), the Zhou B Art Center, Chicago (2014), as well as The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and the LeRoy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University and the Fine Arts Gallery of Bloomington. Malek has taught drawing and painting at Columbia.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Robert Gamblin Painting Grant (2014), a Dean’s Travel Grant (2014), and a Visual Arts Fellowship (2013 and 2014), all from Columbia University School of the Arts. She was honored with a Harry Engle Painting Scholarship (2009) and a Drawing and Painting Area Award (2008) from Indiana University’s Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts.

Presented by The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in collaboration with The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University.

Traces is on display in Philosophy Hall's Cafe Nous on Columbia University's main campus (upper level, next to St. Paul's Chapel). The cafe is open to Columbia affiliates Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m; Saturdays and Sundays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.