SHELLY PINTO

MARCH 1 - 29, 2019

SHELLY PINTO’s work is created out of the knowledge she has accumulated in her career as an artist and owner of a handmade paper company called Shizen Design. Since 1991, Pinto has had the privilege of working with screen-printers in India, immersing herself in the heritage of handmade papers and learning the art of screen printing. Pinto usually starts a painting with a premeditated concept of a shape or pattern. The handmade paper is hand cut, collaged then painted heavily to reinvent layered abstract paintings in a fresh contemporary way. She is purposely trying to engage the viewer by layering paint, collage and decollating bits of paper and texture. It is through the push and pull of paper, pattern and painting that she tries to unite with herself and connection to where she is in the moment. To Pinto, the use of pattern and repeat represents historical structure, and life’s interlocking balance. The act of painting and collaging on top of a surface is how she has found a way for herself to connect to the world and others