MELANA BONTRAGER
PENTIMENTI
J. Rinehart Gallery is excited to announce exhibition, Pentimenti, from painter Melana Bontrager. Bontrager tells the story of what lies beneath and the marks that remain below the surface. Somewhat familiar and somewhat strange, the landscapes consider passage of time. The curtain is pulled back and the change of direction, the pentimenti, is seen.
Pentimenti will be on view online and in the gallery January 27 – February 24, 2024. A Collectors Preview Reception will be held on Saturday, January 27, 2024, from 3-5pm. The Public Opening will be held First Thursday February 1, 2024, 5-8pm.
Pentimenti tells the back-story of the process of creating. Through experimental mark-making, the artist documents the changes, or alters the course of any given painting. Each piece in Bontrager’s exhibition is created from a well of personal experience, observation, musing, and wonder. These marks are made, covered, reworked, scraped to be revealed, and covered over again: ever-changing. Bontrager’s hope is that beauty of these in-between places of pentimenti are found.
Melana Bontrager has her BA in fine arts from Taylor University, Indiana and studied painting/drawing at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy and at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Her MA in Art Therapy from Hofstra University has contributed to the integration of emotion and intimacy in her creative process. Bontrager is included in numerous private and public collections throughout the US including The City of Everett, WA and The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle WA.
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Exhibition Statement
PentimentiThe concept of Pentimenti has always intrigued me. Pentimenti is a term that derives from the Italian verb “pentirsi” meaning to repent or change ones mind. In painting, this term refers to the marks made during the process of creating that change or alter the course of the painting. The pentimenti are what lie beneath, what tell the back-story, the marks that remain below the surface.
In June of 2023, I traveled to Europe for two weeks with a group of students from a small, Eastside school where I currently teach high school art. The trip is an annual tradition, designed for high school seniors as a culmination to their studies, providing them a chance to visit the locations of stories and art found in their history books. As a result, history has a chance to become a bit more real, ancient characters a bit more human.
The contagion of wonder in this fabulous group of young people was not lost on me. Though I’d done a fair bit of traveling before this trip, I suddenly felt like I was beholding these ancient spaces with new eyes as I walked through them, side by side, with members of the next generation, our observations and responses overlapping, shifting my view of history toward a moving, breathing shared thing rather than a static set of facts and legends.
History is story. It's the story of individuals and groups and cultures and kingdoms. Throughout the course of time, history layers these stories as paint on a canvas: marks are made, covered, reworked, scraped to be revealed, and covered over again: the masterpiece is ever-changing. The really good parts aren’t always the ones with glossy finish; more often they point to pentimento, a visual repent or change of direction.
The relationships between what has changed and what remains throughout history is of particular interest to me. I’m intrigued by the spaces where the curtain is pulled back and the change of direction, the pentimenti, is seen. I’m interested in the fascinating, web-like link between all humanity, the places where we learn from each other when the experiences, choices, and philosophies touch, overlap, inform.
The focus of the work in this show is an exploration of these interests and heavily influenced by my travels this past spring. Each piece is created from a combination of personal experience, observation, musing, and wonder. Somewhat familiar and somewhat strange, the landscapes are full of layers that consider the passage of time as well as the physical and emotional effects of its passage. My hope is that beauty be found in the places of pentimenti.