In the heart of Manhattan’s Flatiron district, Pen + Brush, a 130-year-old nonprofit dedicated to championing women in the arts, proudly presents JUST LOVE, an immersive, large-scale installation and exhibition by Italian-born Brooklynite Michela Martello. Drawing inspiration from the renowned Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, Martello’s 360-degree visual experience invites viewers to embark on an introspective and exhilarating journey, exploring the blurred boundaries between reality and the imagined. The narrative woven throughout the exhibition transports viewers into mythical domains, where the sacred and the fantastical coalesce seamlessly.
The installation, titled JUST LOVE, unfurls like a labyrinth of colors and symbology, anchored by eighteen paintings on 14-foot-tall translucent fiber panels that are suspended and torqued into sculptural forms. Martello’s allegory of a transformative voyage beckons viewers into a winding path, depicting a forest bathed in hues of pink, fuchsia, and orange on one side and greens, blues, and browns on the opposite side. This duality feels deliberate, invoking the balance between our inner and outer worlds and the tension between light and dark.
Central to Martello’s practice in JUST LOVE is her ghost painting technique, achieved by applying pigments onto interfacing—a synthetic, translucent fabric that allows light to filter through, making images visible from both sides. This approach creates a dynamic interplay between the controlled imagery presented on the painted side and the more abstract forms on the reverse, accentuating the tension between the seen and the unseen as well as between intention and chance. Martello’s use of natural Nepali pigments adds an organic texture to the work, grounding her dreamlike visions.
Much like Murakami’s blurring of dreams and reality, Martello’s works invite multiple interpretations, with the ghostly images on the reverse side of each panel offering an alternate view of the same scene. This duality enriches the immersive experience, drawing viewers deeper into the intricate tapestry Martello has woven and prompting contemplation on the coexistence of the tangible and the ethereal.
Upon entering the installation, visitors are greeted by Mimi, an oversized black cat looking straight into the eyes of the viewer and caught in the intimate act of washing herself, next to the outline of a pair of bare feet nestled among a lush forest of ferns. A recurring symbol in Martello’s work, the monumental feline serves as a spiritual guide—a feline version of Dante Alighieri’s mentor, Virgil, in The Divine Comedy—and facilitates an essential connection between the realm of humans and the spiritual realm. The enigmatic cat suggests an inward voyage, harmonizing animal instinct with enlightenment and preparing viewers for the unpredictable terrain that lies ahead, while the feet’s outlines symbolize the path to be taken.
Deeper into the installation, the viewer is confronted by the spectral representation of a male figure, materializing from the chromatic expanse of the pink forest and delineated by a delicate white line. His partially discernible silhouette eventually dissipates into the surrounding foliage, as if enveloped by the dense and powerful energy of the forest, representing the unconscious. The silhouette of the human form serves as a mighty metaphor for the introspective journey that.
Martello invites the viewer to undertake—the dissolution of the ego, the apprehension surrounding the loss of self amidst the tumult of transformation, and the potential for rebirth.
At the core of the installation is the textile titled The Entrance Stone, which presents two figures positioned on either side of a large boulder, with the figure at left representing Western values and the older character at right symbolizing Eastern values. The two characters sit gathered around an ancient stone, intuiting and communicating with each other on matters that involve hands, breath, smoke, and lighting bolts. The figure on the left smokes a cigarette, and within the swirling smoke, the likeness of Colonel Sanders emerges—an emblematic figure suggesting consumerism, capitalism, and fast culture.
This surreal vignette is representative of Martello’s artistic approach, wherein symbols from disparate cultures intersect. In this context, the titular “entrance stone” is conceptualized as a threshold or portal to a fifth dimension, wherein the constraining norms of societal conditioning are relinquished. This work serves as a call to awaken the heart chakra and to perceive reality through a lens unobstructed by the limitations imposed by contemporary existence.
Other central themes in Martello’s oeuvre are feminine empowerment and the complexity and duality of the feminine archetype. Within Martello’s installation, such themes are embodied by the character Madame Saeki from Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. In one panel, Madame Saeki drinks coffee while raising her right arm, brandishing a Montblanc pen. Here, Martello elucidates a connection between Madame Saeki and the Buddhist deity Manjushri, who epitomizes wisdom. The gesture resonates with Manjushri’s raised sword, symbolizing the act of cutting through ignorance, thus suggesting that both writing and wisdom possess the inherent power to bring transformation and enlightenment.
In another textile, Madame Saeki is seated on a bed, gazing at a boy under a blue blanket adorned with crows. This seemingly quiet, intimate scene hints at a darker undercurrent—a symbolic reference to incest suggested in Murakami’s book. At the same time, the image emits a powerful feminine energy, where Saeki embodies the archetypal mother and a goddess-like figure brimming with erotic potential. The duality of purity and taboo, creation and destruction, pulses through the work.
The final three panels glow in a luminous blue, their abstract forms suggestive of the body’s internal workings. Martello draws on an ancient Mesopotamian tradition, where the entrails of animals and humans were used to predict the future. The more twisted and convoluted the intestines, the more distorted the perception of the external world, transforming it into a labyrinth that can ensnare the unwary. The intestines—a recurring motif in Martello’s installation—thus mirror the mind’s perception of reality.
On the left side of the installation, a glowing yellow column of painted interfacing ascends towards the ceiling, crowned by eight cats dressed as Eastern deities. At the installation’s base, Martello depicts Murakami’s character, Mr. Nakata, who speaks to cats. Poised like divine figures, the cats signal the transition to a higher plane, guiding the viewer toward an otherworldly dimension where the mundane and the mystical merge.
Mystic Channels, 2004, Acrylic, pigments, ink, pastel on interfacing, 120 in X120 in
Alongside the installation, the gallery walls feature ceramics, works on paper, preparatory sketches, and smaller works created during Martello’s residencies in Tibet and Japan, curated by Delikat, Executive Director, and Parker Daley Garcia, Chief Curator at Pen + Brush.
Michela Martello’s JUST LOVE—curated by Dawn Delikat, Executive Director, and Parker Daley Garcia, Chief Curator at Pen + Brush—is a masterful weaving of her own artistic vision with the literary landscapes of Haruki Murakami. This intertwining is not mere homage; rather, it is a profound dialogue between two creative minds, each exploring the boundaries of reality and imagination. JUST LOVE is a celebration of love in its most expansive and inclusive form and a reminder of our shared humanity and the beauty that lies in our differences. It is an exhibition that promises to leave a lasting impression on all who experience it, a testament to the power of art to transform and elevate the human spirit, a call to embrace the fantastical and to believe in a world just beyond our reach, where art becomes a vessel for transformation.
JUST LOVE runs through November 16th, 2024, at Pen + Brush Pen + Brush, 29 East 22nd Street, New York, NY 10010. The exhibition will travel to Giovanni Bonelli Gallery in Milan, Italy, and the Tsenpo Museum in Eastern Tibet, China.
About the writer: Eva Zanardi is a freelance writer, independent curator, and owner of Visitor Center, a contemporary art gallery located in Newburgh, NY. Her writing has been featured in various publications including Flash Art, White-Hot Magazine, Widewalls, and Art & Object Magazine, among other international print and online media. Prior to relocating to Upstate NY, Eva founded and directed GR Gallery, which was known for its cutting-edge contemporary art exhibitions in New York City. Additionally, she serves as the President and Senior Advisor of EZartconsultingnyc, a private art consultancy that specializes in modern and contemporary art. Her latest project, In and Out of Lineage: Tracing Artistic Heritage Through SUNY New Paltz Faculty, an exhibition Zanardi guest-curated for The Samuel Dorsky Museum, is currently on view at the museum until December 8, 2024.