Malissa Perry
ABOUT
Malissa Perry is a self-taught artist from Bellingham, WA. She began painting in Spring of 2015 when one of her caregivers gifted her with a blank canvas.
In her personal life and her professional work, Malissa Perry specializes in communicating emotions without the use of words. Perry can instantaneously give viewers a sense of nostalgia or curiosity with her vibrant colors and strong compositions. By using shoelaces, balloons, glitter, or beads, she can evoke a sense of playfulness in one piece and complete mystery in another. Perry’s emphasis on texture and tactility in all her pieces grounds the viewer in the present and invites them into a private space not many have access to: her individual worldview. As local artist Christen Mattix observed: “Malissa never repeats herself.”
R E S U M E
2 0 2 4
"INTRIGUE"
Connections SLP, Bellingham, WA
2 0 2 3
"A Summer Invocation"
Cordata Community Food Co-Op, Bellingham, WA
2 0 2 3
"NEW BEGINNINGS"
Makeworth Coffee Roasters, Bellingham, WA
2 0 2 3
Allied Arts Membership Show
Allied Arts, Bellingham, WA
2 0 2 3
"NEW BEGINNINGS"
Cascadia Physical Therapy, Bellingham, WA
2 0 2 1
Fall Juried Exhibit
Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA
2 0 2 0
"Through the Eyes of the Beholder"
Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA
2 0 1 9
"Portals"
The Wise Art Gallery, Tukwila, WA
2 0 1 9
"Perspectives"
Makeshift Gallery, Bellingham, WA
2 0 1 9
Winter Juried Exhibit
Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA
2 0 1 8
Spring Juried Exhibit
Jansen Art Center, Lynden, WA
2 0 1 7
"Objectification 10"
Smith and Vallee Gallery, Edison, WA
2 0 1 6
"Search for Meaning"
Seattle University, Seattle, WA
2 0 1 6
"The Malissa Perry Project: Love Loves to Love"
Makeshift Art Gallery, Bellingham, WA
2 0 1 5
"The Malissa Perry Project: Healing Through Art"
St. Joseph Medical Center, Bellingham, WA
P U B L I C A T I O N
C A S C A D I A W E E K L Y
December 2015
"She opens up fun, refreshing possibilities that are avant garde in their bold defiance of fashion norms.”
*From the archives of the Cascadia Weekly and used with the permission of the Cascadia Newspaper Company, LLC.
N O R T H W E S T C A T H O L I C
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."