Malcolm Mooney:
Artifacts, Rituals, and Trespasses
Tilton Gallery, New York
September 4 - November 2, 2024
Black Float from Above, 1986
Oil on canvas
36 x 47 1/2 inches / 9104 x 120.7 cm
© Malcolm Mooney / Courtesy Tilton Gallery
Tilton Gallery presents a solo exhibition of works by visual artist, vocalist, poet, and lyricist MALCOLM MOONEY. This is the artist’s first exhibition with Tilton.
Malcolm Mooney was born in Yonkers in 1944. He received his BFA from the Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1978 and his MFA from California State University in 1987. Malcolm Mooney’s storied career has spanned the disciplines of visual art and music for over 50 years. He has performed and exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Exhibition venues include the Aspen Art Museum and White Columns, New York. Most recently, he exhibited in Düsseldorf, Germany in 2023. He has lived in Germany, New York, and Los Angeles and currently lives and works in Calgary, Canada where he teaches at the Alberta University of the Arts.
The exhibition includes seminal early abstract paintings and works on paper from the 1970s to 1980s as well as examples of works from as recent as 2020. Renowned for his avant-garde music and performances, Mooney’s concurrent dedication to making paintings and drawings is less well known. Tilton brings to light a strong group of works that span this long career and highlight the artist’s ongoing exploration of light, color and structure.
The works on view cover different periods in his art, from bold expressionistic gestures to more formal geometric experiments. Throughout, rhythm and syncopation play an important role, anchoring each work and echoing Malcolm Mooney’s emphasis on improvisation and the rhythmic flow so central to his music and poetry. Vibrant color defines Mooney’s palette, calling to mind Kandinsky’s theories about the relationship of color to sound. He has a history of strong ties with other artists, such as Frederick J. Brown, Gregory Edwards, Ulrich Rückriem, and Ed Clark, for whom he was a studio assistant from 2007 to 2010.
Malcolm Mooney was the original vocalist of the German experimental rock band CAN, whose 1969 debut album, Monster Movie, became one of the most influential recordings in contemporary music. He has performed with many of the great contemporary musicians and he is presently the lead singer in his band, Eleventh Planet.
Previous post about Malcolm Mooney on Wanafoto:
Malcolm Mooney: WORKS: 1970–1986, Ulrick, New York, 2022
TILTON GALLERY
8 East 76 Street, New York, NY 10021
