statement

My current body of work, titled Autobiographies, is a series of large, individual and multi-figure paintings illustrating various aspects of my life both personal and professional. Most recently, the themes of
these paintings have veered toward domestic subject matter, focusing on parenthood and its various experiences.  These domestic paintings have become less empirical and more allegorical, using the objects and structures observed at home in fanciful compositions to distill and exaggerate particular experiences.  I'm interested in the idea of responsibility both in the sense of physical care, with its associations of anxiety and fatigue, and in the habits and personality traits bequeathed through heredity.  These works, almost as much still life as figure compositions, use objects to represent the burdens of domestic life.

bio

born: 1963, Cincinnati, Ohio

education

Queens College, CUNY, MFA, 1990
Trinity College, Hartford, CT, BA Philosophy 1985

selected awards/honors

Outwin Boochever National Portrait Competition, National Portrait Gallery, finalist 2009
Blue Canvas Magazine, featured artist 2011

selected publications

Blue Canvas Magazine, magazine cover, 2011
Face to Face, Cannon Gallery, Carlsbad, CA, group exhibition catalog
The Figure Revealed, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, group exhibition catalog, 2008

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Perin Mahler, recent work, aquinas gallery, aquinas college, grand rapids, mi, 2008
Perin Mahler, autobiographies: recent work, the carnegie, cincinnati, oh, 2007
larger than life, edinboro university, edinboro, pa, with tim fisher, 2007
life story, elon university, burlington, nc, with tim fisher, 2005

selected group shows

Laguna College Faculty exhibition, 7 Degrees Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2011
face to face, the changing face of portraiture, william d cannon art gallery, carlsbad, ca , 2011
seven painters, devos art museum, marquette, mi, 2008
the figure revealed, kalamazoo institute of arts, kalamazoo, mi, 2008