MALISSA PERRY ART

GET TO KNOW MALISSA

Malissa Perry is a self-taught artist, living and working in Bellingham, WA. With a complex dual diagnosis of autism and Down syndrome, she is almost completely nonverbal, using sign language minimally and dependent on 24-hour care. She began painting on canvas when her beloved caregiver, Nancy Daugherty, gifted her with a blank canvas in Spring of 2015. Since then, she has had several art shows. Many of her original paintings are now in private collections. Malissa uses art as a mode of expression, making her voice heard with vibrant colors and a strong use of composition and mixed media.

RESUME

2020

Through the Eyes of the Beholder

Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA

2019

Portals

The Wise Art Gallery, Tukwila, WA

2019

Perspectives

Makeshift Gallery, Bellingham, WA

2019

Winter Juried Art Show

Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA

2018

Spring Juried Exhibit

Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA

2017

Objectification 10

Smith and Vallee Gallery, Edison, WA

2016

Search for Meaning

Seattle University, Seattle, WA

2016

The Malissa Perry Project: Love Loves to Love

Makeshift Art Gallery, Bellingham, WA

2015

The Malissa Perry Project: Healing Through Art

St. Joseph Medical Center, Bellingham, WA

PUBLICATIONS

CASCADIA WEEKLY

December 2015

"She opens up fun, refreshing possibilities that are avant garde in their bold defiance of fashion norms.”

NORTHWEST CATHOLIC

January - February 2016

"Malissa is nonverbal, but her paintings give expression to a rich, enigmatic inner life. She creates dense, atmospheric layers of marker, glitter and paint that suggest nebulae, tidal pools or glittering geodes. The surfaces of her paintings incorporate found objects like shoelaces, beads and balloons culled from her daily life."