Dianna Molzan's paintings cast in relief the very materials of painting: paint, canvas, and wooden stretcher bars. Her vibrant, easel-sized paintings alter our expectations of what a painting can be. Often beginning with a rectangle, Molzan deliberately dismantles the three basic components of painting through a variety of experiments such as cutting, unraveling, twisting, and draping the canvas. A painting's canvas may turn into a woven grid, or extend into space with sewn shapes. But despite the formal and material tactics Molzan deploys, her works still retain the appearance of painting. They remain, ultimately, paint on canvas wrapped around a stretcher.
For her first solo museum show in Boston, on display this summer and fall at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Molzan will create all new works. In keeping with her innovative approach, Molzan allows the architecture of the space in which her work will be seen to influence the paintings. Treating the gallery as a specific context is unusual for a painter, yet one can make comparisons to artists and designers who have created interiors and buildings as works of art. Consider Charles Rennie Mackintosh - designed interiors or Matisseâs Chapel in Vence, France. Like those who have created total environments, Molzan considers her exhibitions as locations where paintings can be read as an ensemble.