Project Description

Born 1927, Oakland, CA

Mala Breuer grew up attending classes in painting and drawing from a young age at the California College of Arts and Crafts. After high school she attended the, now, San Francisco Art Institute where she studied under many notable artists, including Richard Diebenkorn, Clyfford Still, David Park, and Mark Rothko. Breuer matured as an artist in, and was profoundly affected by, the era of Abstract Expressionism, focusing more on material and application than representation. By the late 1960s, she was pouring water thinned washes of acrylic paint onto large, wet, stretched, vertical canvases. During an exhibition of those works, a San Francisco gallerist suggested that she head to New York, where abstraction, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art were continuing to gain traction. Breuer listened to this advice and set out to New York with intentions of staying only one year, she stayed for eight. In New York she began working with a palette knife, making direct, abstract marks with dark colors and with great density. She gained recognition as a significant painter during her time there. In 1984 she moved to northern New Mexico, a landscape that influenced Breuer’s use of color, light, and more minimal compositions. Breuer currently lives in New Mexico where she painted for another twenty-plus years; she is now retired from her studio practice.

Mala Breuer attended the, now, San Francisco Art Institute. Her work is included in the public collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, NM; the Albuquerque Museum; the Richard Levy Gallery in Albuquerque, NM; FIAC in Paris, France; Capital Group in Los Angeles, CA; and the Laura Carpenter Fine Art Gallery in Santa Fe, NM.

HONORS AND AWARDS
1996
WESTAF/NEA Grant, Santa Fe, NM
1995
SITE Santa Fe Award, Santa Fe, NM
1991
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY
1990
Artist-in-Residence, Roswell, NM
 
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015
Mala Breuer: From New York to Santa Fe, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2008
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1998
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM Anthony Meier, San Francisco, CA
1996
Thomas Blackman Associates, Chicago, IL Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1995
Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1993-94
Laura Carpenter Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1988-90
Graham Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1983
Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York, NY
1983
Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York, NY
1981
Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York, NY
1980
SoHo Center for Visual Arts, New York, NY
1976
Source Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1975
Icehouse, San Francisco, CA
1974
Susan Rush Associates, San Francisco, CA
1974
Zara Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1965-67
Labaudt Gallery, San Francisco, CA
 
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
Continuum: Art-As-Art, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
2016-17
Conversations in Painting, Early 20th Century to Post-War American Art, New Mexico Museum of Fine Art
2013
Friends and Family, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005
Back to Basics: A Group Show, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2005
The Natalie and Irving Forman Collection, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2002-04
Emi Winter, Mala Breuer, Roger Walker, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2003
Edward Tyler Nahem, New York, NY
2002
Galerie Albrecht, Munich, Germany
2002
Farm Art Space, Missoula, MT
1998
Artscrawl Summer Group Show I and II, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1998
San Francisco International Exposition, San Francisco, CA
1996
Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
1995-96
Award Recipient Exhibition – SITE Santa Fe Honors New Mexico Artists, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
1994-96
Still Working, National Artists Opening, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC
1993
Three Women – Agnes Martin, Mala Breuer, Florence Pierce, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
1989
Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
1988
Keats Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1988
Marilyn Butler Gallery Invitational, Santa Fe, NM
1979
New Work, Nieuw Amsterdam, New York, NY
1978-81
Hank Baum Gallery Invitational, San Francisco, CA
1977
Davis and Long Gallery, New York, NY
1977
James Yu Invitational, New York, NY
1975
New Works by West Coast Artists, Susan Rush Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1958
San Francisco Museum of Art Annual, San Francisco, CA
 
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
New Mexico Capitol Art Collection, Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM
Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, NM
Capital Group, Los Angeles, CA
The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, NM
 
SELECTED PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Capital Group, Los Angeles, CA
Anne Davis, El Paso, TX
Helen Rosenbloom, New York, NY
Jones of New York, New York, NY
Marvin Kosman, New York, NY
Nancy Nicholson, Chicago, IL
Tom James, New York, NY
Terence McNally, New York, NY
Ray Graham, Albuquerque, NM
Fred Luna, Phoenix, AZ
John Matlock, San Antonio, TX
Diane Bailey, Newton, MA
Betty and Roger Vaughn, Portland, ME
Martha Keats, Santa Fe, NM
Natalie and Irving Forman, Santa Fe, NM
Dr. and Mrs. Michael Ogg, Santa Fe, NM
Mr. and Mrs. George Ayres, Santa Fe, NM
Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Hitchcock, Santa Fe, NM
Ron Costel and Marsha Swiss, Washington, DC
Richard Levy, Albuquerque, NM
Viviette Hunt, Albuquerque, NM
Charlene Engelhard, Boston, MA
Florence Pierce, Albuquerque, NM
Jonathan Abrams, Albuquerque, NM
Frieda Arth, Albuquerque, NM
Dr. and Mrs. Jonathan, Albuquerque, NM
Edward Tyler Nahem, New York, NY
Tom Blackman, Chicago, IL
Anthony Meier, San Francisco, CA
Ken Fried, Boston, MA
Mark Moore, Santa Monica, CA
Jessica and Chris Noels, Chicago, IL
Gift, Laura Carpenter Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Private Collectors, Korea
Gaye Gilster Lee, Victoria, TX
Maryellen Latas, Albuquerque, NM
Caroline Lee, Taos, NM
Patrick Lannon, Santa Fe, NM
Marsha Ralls, Washington DC
Elizabeth Goldburg
Artsy Editorial : From New York to Santa Fe, Mala Breuer Channels her Environment in Abstract Paintings
Studying under painters like Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Richard Diebenkorn, Mala Breuer launched her prolific life as an artist during the 1940’s in San Francisco. Bentley Gallery’s Mala Breuer: New York to Santa Fe exhibition highlights Breuer’s mid-career development as an Abstract Expressionist. Works from the 1970’s to 1990’s demonstrate the artist’s delicate reaction to both time and place as she moved across the United States. 

The Arts Beacon : Mala Breuer at Bentley Gallery
Artist Mala Breuer’s Abstract Expressionist work can clearly be attributed to various interpersonal experiences and schools of thought, but reactions to time and place are also keys to understanding her paintings. Bentley Gallery’s exhibition Mala Breuer: New York to Santa Fe traces the artist’s mid-career movements over two decades, revealing how time and place greatly shaped her work and persona.

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