Shelly Malkin. Of Paradise, Storms & Butterflies

About

Malkin’s work will be on view through April 29 at the gallery’s pop-up space at 27 East 67th Street (third floor). Shelly Malkin is a devoted observer. Her delicately rendered watercolors record the evolution of the world that surrounds her. Her subject matter, whether she’s depicting the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy or the azure waters of the Andaman Sea, spans place, scope and scale.

Malkin’s mission, through her medium of choice, is to report on and record the ever-evolving beauty and destruction that she observes. Her watercolors investigate the philosophical impasse at which humanity and nature often meet: She uses classical landscape painting to present the viewer with questions about the scientific consequences of the often-careless imprint society leaves on the earth.

This collection of new works, which includes large-format watercolors and an installation, functions as a series of meditations: each evokes a specific place and time, and dwells on the sometimes catastrophic results of extreme weather. Her ambitious installation of more than 50 small watercolors of butterflies, titled Butterfly Effect, is a reference to chaos theory: the idea that slight changes, such as the fluttering of butterflies’ wings, can give rise to strikingly dramatic consequences.