Mary Temple

This series of work, made primarily from paper and acrylic paint, are small sculpture/paintings that exemplify how beautiful a room can become when light enters from a nearby window.

Even though Temple is considered a multi-disciplinary artist, her background in painting remains a key part of her sculptural forms. Temple explores the visual qualities of light and shadow in any given room, which displays an uncanny awareness of everyday spaces. Using a single piece of paper, she folds and cuts it to resemble a small room with windows; an exterior source of light is then cast into it. Then, working from memory, Temple paints the places that received light, while at the same time inventing and adding details from an exterior landscape. These landscapes, created from various shades of light and dark, become short stories formulated from Temple's own memories and experiences.

While paint remains a primary means of conveying light and ideas in Temple's work, the architectural environment has become a key component of her process. Temple uses both conceptual and physical space to amplify the emotional sensibility of a site. In doing so, she evokes the power of memory in relation to the fragility of how we, as individuals, relate to our environments.

Mary Temple was born in Arizona and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in Painting and her MFA in Painting and Drawing from Arizona State University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Since 1995, she has shown in a number of group and solo shows at Mixed Greens Gallery, NYC; ZieherSmith Gallery NYC; Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Savannah College of Art and Design Trois Gallery, Georgia; and will next show at SFMoMA in San Francisco, CA.

• Mary Temple at Mixed Greens
• Mary Temple | Official Site