Staff Show 2012: Kurtis Ceppetelli and Matthew Malone

In this series, Young Artists Exhibitions Program Coordinator Jenna Kowalke-Jones profiles participants in the 2012 James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show.

Kurtis Ceppetelli / Matt Malone. Ginger pot with pomegranate and pear, oh my., 2012. House paint on drop cloth.

Kurtis Ceppetelli / Matt Malone. Ginger pot with pomegranate and pear, oh my., 2012. House paint on drop cloth.

Duly Noted Painters comprises Kurtis Ceppetelli (museum assistant) and Matthew Malone (former museum assistant). Their artists’ statement:

We are two painters painting as one. Our work is just as much about the creative process as the painted image itself. It is about compromise, discussion, feeling, mood, anger, love. It is experimental like our nature. Our work is a response from our individual worlds and the impressions we take from it, combining them together to create a piece of art.

We work paintings until they can no longer be advanced. We start with an object, figure, a reference, or a vision of some sort. From there the painting gets its roots and is born. Like a child we give it life, nurture it to the point where it starts to think and make decisions on its own. When it reaches the point where we can not help make it stronger than what it is, only then is it complete.

The end result is a single image painted by two minds.

Duly Noted painters: Matthew Malone, left, and Kurtis Ceppetelli, right, painting together. Photo courtesy: Matthew Malone and Kurtis Ceppetelli.

Who is/are your favorite artist/artists in the collection?
Kurtis:  Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Matt:   John D. Graham

Favorite Painting:
Kurtis: Henri Matisse, Studio, Quai Saint-Michel
Matt:  John Sloan, The Wake of the Ferry II

What is your favorite gallery/space within The Phillips Collection?
We both like the Music Room.

What would you like people to know about your artwork on view in the 2012 Staff Show (and/or your work in general)?
Our work is a collaboration where we both paint together at the same time. The piece in the show is a version of  Paul Cézanne’s Ginger Pot with Pomegranate and Pears which is in the collection.

The 2012 James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show is on view September 4-October 9, 2012. Please join us for the reception on September 27, 5:30-8 pm. This year’s show features 35 artworks, of various media, all by Phillips Collection staff.

Jenna Kowalke-Jones, Young Artists Exhibitions Program Coordinator

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