Malarie Reising Clark moved to Telluride seven years ago to pursue the ski bum & barista lifestyle after college and gallery internships on the east coast. Her photography and art history degrees led her to the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art where she has recently become the Gallery Director. She enjoys analog photography, cooking, snowboarding with her husband and hanging out with her cats Pixel and Bits.
We asked Malarie a few questions:
1) Ice cream flavor?
Peanut butter and Nilla wafer shake from Cookout.
2) First job?
Photographer at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.
3) Favorite saying? / Motto?
"Photography is just light remembering itself." -Jerry Ueslmann and "Machu Picchu" for good luck.
4) Performing artist?
Over the past year, Robert Plant and Minus the Bear take the cake.
5) Happy place?
Whiteroom on chair 9, darkroom anywhere.
6) Favorite exhibit at Telluride Gallery of Fine Art to date?
R. Nelson Parrish's Light in the Canyon this past June is really close to me, he is an emerging sculpture artist whose work deserved a solo show. It was thoughtful, stunning and the response was fantastic.
Non-Objective last December was very special. It opened my eyes to the new type of curation we are diving into at the gallery. I felt like some of my personal long term goals were being realized as we were doing studio visits and interviews with those artists.
An all time big favorite is working with iconic photographers that I obsessed over in college; Jerry Uelsmann, Sandy Skoglund, Maggie Taylor, Lauren Greenfield, Ruth Bernhard, Dan Budnik, Paul Nicklen.
7) Telluride tradition?
Closing day craziness. Doing the pond skim is still a highlight of my Telluride career (I came out dry).
8) Describe your work as an artist
My photography work is film based. I shoot polaroids as a kind of sacred documentation of time and place, I think of it like anti-cell phone photography because I will only make one or two images at a location. I also shoot altered and manipulated landscapes on 35mm. These are all multiple exposures created in camera that, to me, are more immersive and capture the feeling of being in awe of a landscape... plus they are a little trippy and saturated with color.
9) How did (question 8) start out?
Mostly nostalgia. I grew up around my mom always shooting film. I loved loading her cameras and waiting on film to be processed. In college when I studied photography, everyone had the newest and best digital cameras. I thought a lot of the work started to look the same. I got into medium format film, expired 35mm and buying vintage polaroid film on ebay. I liked the physicality of creating tangible images and the extra elements of craft that go into that.
10) Most looking forward to?
Continuing to bring interesting, challenging, high caliber artwork into Telluride. Upholding Telluride Gallery's legacy while starting a new chapter. Playing with my Super 8 cameras. El Nino.