About the Artist
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Madara Mason is a mixed media and graphic artist in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her eclectic mixed media pieces run the gamut from landscapes, to animals, to mythical and symbolic narratives. Her work explores the conversation between traditional and contemporary forms. Madara teaches Professional Practices for Visual Artists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, instilling the #artisapractice philosophy in her students.
In the Media
Interview, Northern Soundings Podcast, “Earth Day”, May 2018
Interview, Alaska Museum of the North Blog, April, 2018
Profile, “Fairbanks artist ‘searches for time’ in busy schedule,” Daily News Miner, 2017
Review, The worlds of two artists converge at Well Street Art Co., Latitude 65, 2012
Interview, "KUAC/AlaskaOne Poster Artist", University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2009
My art is the relic of an exploratory impulse and of a particular rabbit trail exploring the boundaries between formal concerns and marginalized art practices, especially women’s handicrafts. In using deconstructed, commercial crafting materials to build layered applications, some of my work evokes a particular universal memory I believe we all share: that shining limnal moment when we first realized there exists a constructed, civilized beauty in the world which is distinct from the beauty of the natural world. In that moment, we emerge from a psychological state of innocence—where everything appears natural, organic, eternal, and whole— into a different state of understanding, sensing that some beauty is fashioned from pulling the natural world apart and putting it back together again in meaningful ways and that nothing in nature is permanent. —from In Search of Lost Time, 2018
Solo Exhibitions
New Work, Sevigny Gallery, Anchorage, AK 2020
Feather & Fur, Two Street Gallery, Fairbanks, AK 2020
I Contain Multitudes, Alaskan Artist Series, Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks, AK 2018
In Search of Lost Time, Well Street Art Co., Fairbanks, AK, 2017
Four and Twenty Black Bears, Alaska House Art Gallery, Fairbanks, AK, Jul. 2016
Inherent Patterns, Ursa Major, Fairbanks, AK, Feb. 2016
Studio Works, Morris Thompson Visitor & Cultural Center, Fairbanks, AK, Oct. 2015
New Work: Paintings, Alaska House Art Gallery, Fairbanks, AK, 2014
Mythologies, Sevigny Art Gallery, Anchorage, AK, 2011
New Work, Well Street Art Co., Fairbanks, AK, 2010
Yupik Masks in Translation: New Work, New Horizons, Fairbanks, AK, 2008
Hoof and Horn: Works in Oil and Mixed Media, Alaska House Art Gallery, Fairbanks, AK, 2005
Selected Group Exhibitions
Birds on the Edge, Invitational, International Gallery of Contemporary Art, Anchorage, AK 2019
64th Parallel, Juried Exhibition, Bear Gallery, Fairbanks Arts Assoc., Fairbanks, AK, 2005, 2014, 2017, 2018
Mad Girls, The Alaska House Art Gallery, Fairbanks, AK, 2015
Limited Edition, Bear Gallery, Fairbanks Arts Assoc., Fairbanks, AK, 2014
Monsters & Legends, University of Alaska Fairbanks eLearning, Fairbanks, AK, 2014
Winter Group Show, Warwick Glass Studio, Fairbanks, 2011
University Heights Arts Open, Swedenborg Gallery, San Diego, CA, 2007
Miniature Show, New Horizons Gallery, Fairbanks, AK, 2005-07
Alaska Women Artists, The Alaska House Art Gallery, Fairbanks, AK, 2006
Quilt Alaska, Bear Gallery, Fairbanks Arts Assoc., Fairbanks, AK. 2004
Book Covers and Literary Journal Art
Cover Art, Armor and Ornament, Christopher L. Miles, University of Alaska Press, 2019
Featured Artist, New Ohio Review, 2019 Summer Exclusive, Ohio University, 2019
Cover Art, Catafalque, Adam Tavel, University of Evansville Press, 2018
Featured Art, Radar Poetry, Issue 14, April 2017
Cover Art, The Fawn Abyss, Adam Tavel, Salmon Poetry, 2016
Cover Art, Plash and Levitation, Adam Tavel, University of Alaska Press, 2014
Cover Art, Third Coast Magazine, Spring 2012
Featured Artwork, Loaded Bicycle, Fall 2011
Cover design, Midnight Sun Chapbook Series, University of Alaska, 2007, 2008
Cover design, Permafrost Magazine, University of Alaska, 2006-2008
Other
Set Artwork, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, Miramax, 2016
Community Arts Workshop, Instructor, The Canvas Gallery, Juneau, AK, June 2016
"Comics in the Classroom: Students as Makers," Emerald City Comicon, Presenter, Seattle, WA 2015
Scenic Artist and Costume Design, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater, 2010
AlaskaOne Poster Artist, KUAC/AlaskaOne, 2009
Honorable Mention, Quilt Alaska, Bear Gallery, Alaska Centennial Center for the Arts, 2004