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Oolong Gallery is pleased to present Tea-soaked madeleine, a solo exhibition of paintings by Michael Colletta.
“Michael Colletta’s paintings are rooted in the ordinary events that accumulate into a life: gatherings of family, childhood play on suburban streets, garage-band concerts, the watering of plants, the umbrellaing of a beloved, and the solace of remembered places. Echoing the exhibition’s title, Tea-soaked Madeleine, these works arise from a mysterious transformation of memory into universally intimate micro-monuments. Working from memory and invention as much as observation, Colletta pares away incidental detail to arrive at images that feel at once personal and archetypal. His recurring figures and motifs function less as portraits of specific individuals than as a means to convey affection, longing, wonder, and belonging.
Colletta’s paintings possess a quiet emotional gravity. Their simplified forms, carefully orchestrated color relationships, and luminous spaces create a world where everyday experience takes on an almost mythic dimension. Colletta reminds us that profound meaning is often found not in extraordinary events, but in the moments that linger in memory long after they have passed, acquiring a significance greater than the events themselves.”
—Larry Groff
Michael Colletta received his MFA from Yale University in 1987, following his BA from UC Santa Cruz. He has more than thirty years of painting experience, working from life as well as the imagination. Colletta has taught studio art at UC Santa Cruz and currently teaches at UC San Diego Extended Studies. His work has been exhibited nationally and is held in numerous private collections. The painter lives and works in Encinitas, California, where Oolong Gallery was founded.
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