Jane Smaldone

Jane Smaldone was born in New York City in 1953 and currently lives and works in the Boston area with her husband Mark and daughter Isabel, who has become one of her favorite subjects. She attended the State University of New York and attained her BFA in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1976.

Smaldone's paintings combine her long-standing interest in landscape, still life and portraiture, interweaving the genres in a personal style inspired by art historical traditions as diverse as Chinese landscape painting, Surrealism and Folk Art.

She says about her work, "The flowers, portraits and landscapes that I have been working on are inspired in part by a dialogue between the real and the imagined. My subjects tend to be those important to my life and evocative for me in a visual, emotional or psychic way.

"I'm not interested in representation, but in transformation —transformation as it relates to past events, the perceived present and the imagined future. Painting is a process for me through which to explore the poetic nature of these transformations and a way to express the unseen forces on our lives."

Smaldone's work is included in many private, corporate and public collections internationally, including the Danforth Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum and Wellington Management. She has had numerous solo shows in the United States and Canada and participated in many group shows.

Artist Statement

" A dialogue between the real and the imagined inspires the flowers, portraits and landscapes that I have been working on. I'm often struck by how the two can merge or one becomes the other: My subjects tend to be those important to my life and evocative for me in a visual, emotional or psychic way.

"I'm not interested in representation, but in transformation. Transformation as it relates to past events, the perceived present and the imagined future.

"I tend to paint my daughter, Isabel, as larger than life. In a way she becomes a vessel for all my hopes, concerns and beliefs, not only for her, but for the larger world as well. Her transformation from a baby to sixteen years old has been truly remarkable. Painting is a process for me, through which to explore the poetic nature of these transformations and a way to express the unseen forces on our lives.

"I rarely work from sketches, preferring to start directly on the canvas and relying on images from my mind's eye and from memory. I like to allow the more unconscious elements to filter through and exist with the more intentional aspects of the work.

"Sometimes, I use photographs that I've taken for visual information that I will use in a composite way (hands, faces, trees, sky, etc). Color is extremely important to me in developing an idea and often generates a sense of place and purpose, and a way 'into the painting." -- Jane Smaldone

Please click HERE to read Greg Cook's review of Jane's 2006 solo exhibition at the Nina Nielsen Gallery.

Please click HERE to read Greg Cook's review of Jane's 2009 solo exhibition at the Nina Nielsen Gallery.

Please click HERE to see Jane's work online at Artist-A-Day.

Public Collections

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA
De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Wellington Management Company, Boston, MA
Women’s and Infant’s Hospital, Providence, RI

Awards

2000

Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant Recipient

1985

Recipient of the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship in Painting, granted by the Council for the Arts and Humanities.

Solo Exhibitions

2018

Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA

2016

"Rocks and Roses & the Return of the Fox," Clark Gallery, Lincoln. MA

2014

Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA

2011

Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA

2009

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

2008

"Sight for Sore Eyes," The New England College of Optometry, Boston MA

2006

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

2005

Loch Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2003

"Portraits and Still Lifes," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

2002

"New Paintings," Nancy Poole's Studio, TAwards

2000

Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant Recipient

1985

Recipient of the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship in Painting, granted by the Council for the Arts and Humanities.

Public Collections

2001

"Heroines and Saints," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

2000

Nancy Poole's Studio, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1999

"New Paintings," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1995

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1992

Nancy Poole's Studio, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1991

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1988

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1986

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1984

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
Zoe Gallery, Boston, MA
Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA

Group Exhibitions

2018

"Likeness"/Contemporary Portraits, Clark University, Worcester, MA

2017

"We Dream! Beauty Beyond and Beneath," Suffolk University Gallery, Boston, MA

2014

"The Expressive Voice: Brought to Light " Selections from the Permanent Collection of the Danforth Museum, Framingham

2013

The Salon Show," Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA

2012

"Group Show of New Paintings" Gallery Bergelli, Larkspur, CA

2011

"Salon Show," Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
"The Expressive Voice"- Selections from the permanent collection at the Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA

2010

"Off the Wall," - Juried Show at the Danforth Museum, Framingham (honorable mention - 2nd place)
"Head On," Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA

2009

"Salon Show," Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA

2008

"A Dog's Life," Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
"The Best of the Contemporaries" Explorations in Realism, The Loch Gallery in Calgary, Canada

2007

Summer Exhibition, The Loch Gallery in Toronto, Canada

2006

"Summer Invitational", Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Independent Views", Loch Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2005

"Offspring," Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
"Interiors: Fantasy, Illusion, Reality", Loch Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2004

"Trees," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Portraits," Kleinert / James Art Center, Woodstock, NY

2003

"Summer Invitational, " Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"March Heat," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
Toronto International Art Fair, Ontario, Canada

2002

Toronto International Art Fair, Ontario, Canada
Frey / Norris Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Nancy Poole's Studio, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2001

"In the Spirit of Landscape VII," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Portraits: More Than Skin and Bones," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"In the Spirit of Landscape VI," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"In the Spirit of Landscape V," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1999

"Nielsen Gallery 35th Anniversary Exhibition: Part II - New Work," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Odyssey: A Journey into World Art," Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
"From Boston to Boca," Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
Exhibition in Tribute to Stephen D. Paine, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
DeCordova Annual Exhibition, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA
"In the Spirit of Landscape IV," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1998

"In the Spirit of Landscape III," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Invitational: Portraits,' Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
Boston International Fine Art Show, Boston, MA
"Dreamweavers: Symbolist Tendencies in Contemporary New England Art," Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA.

1997

"In the Spirit of Landscape II," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1996

"Animal, Mineral, Vegetable: A Painting Invitational," The Art Gallery, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

1995

"Ordinary Object/Extraordinary Experience," Summer Invitational, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1994

Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"The Studio Show," The Cyclorama, Boston, MA
"Metaphor as Reality," Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA

1993

"Beyond Dreams: 20 Years of the Bromfield Gallery in Boston,
"Part One: The Retrospective," Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA
"Crossing the Line: Abstraction/Figuration," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"INSIGHT/INCITE/INSITE," a group exhibition of Nine
Women Artists, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1992

"In The Spirit of Landscape," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Drawing Show," Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Milton, MA

1991

"Summer Group Exhibition," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1990

"Spirituality In Contemporary Art By Women," Watson Gallery, Wheaton College, Norton, MA

1989

"Summertime," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Works of Contemporary Women Artists," Bank of Boston, Boston, MA

1988

"Common Ground," Joint exhibition of Nielsen and Hurst Galleries, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1987

"The Narrated Earth," Bank of Boston, Boston, MA
"Seven Women Artists," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
"Expressive Systems / Eloquent Voices" exhibition of Boston Area Painters, " Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
"Brockton Triennial," Brockton Art Museum, Brockton, MA
"Interior Spaces," Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA
"Boston Baroque," Vault Gallery, Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, Curated by DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
"Ten Boston Artists," Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA

1986

"Summer Review: Gallery Artists," Zoe Gallery, Boston, MA
"50th Anniversary Celebration," Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

1985

"Six Painters," Northeastern University Art Gallery, Boston, MA
Brornfield Gallery, Boston, MA
Viridian Gallery, New York, NY

1983

MFA School staff exhibit, Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston, MA
East Wing Gallery, Mount Wachusett College, Gardner, MA
Bromfield Gallery, Boston, MA