Mason Saltarrelli: Oaken March

“Underneath the oak trees, through the cracked streets, while flowing between photographer and walking participant, my observations and internal experiences of joy amplified as I watched people’s inner jubilation grow into an outer intoxicating display of embracement and dancing led by the grand marshals and a marching brass band. 

My recent experience in a New Orleans second line was a restorative kaleidoscope. These paintings are organized as an appreciation of that day, a thank you to all present for so beautifully reminding me that pausing is presence and joy is wondrous, especially when someone dances with a shoe on their head.”

  -Mason Saltarrelli, January 2025

Mason Saltarrelli tells stories. His paintings absorb and compress time, distilling years of reflection. He transposes people, travels, and events into abstract paintings, a language that transcends the dry recitation of sequenced events to capture the immediacy of emotion, imbuing memories with urgency. Silent narratives are an essential medium giving rise to works that sometimes linger in his mind for years or decades before being articulated into paintings, visualizations revealing nuances that elude words. In Saltarelli's paintings, the essence of experience becomes paramount, kept vivid through a cadence of forms and hues. The shapes are mostly organic, yet never seem to suggest a representation of figures or landscapes fully. At times they hint at being an unknown calligraphic language, but never become text, always remaining abstractions, unfixed and suggestive. They feel full of details but are constructed with an economy of marks, only what is essential, frequently emphasizing the negative space of the canvas. The story told in each painting accumulates over time; each exhibition becomes a chapter in Saltarrelli’s growing autobiography.