Little One by Mathew Calandra
Love owls and mermaids singing in the rainbow pop. Photo by Diana Panuccio/Art Gallery of NSW.
Across two weeks in October, Mathew Calandra, Emily Crockford, Annette Galstaun, Lauren Kerjan, Jaycee Kim, Catherine McGuiness, and Meagan Pelham of Studio A created an epic mural on the largest single wall at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The work celebrates the power of love and togetherness.
Mathew Calandra’s poem, Little One is included in the Art Gallery of NSW mural.
Mr Matthew Calandra has one cat left, Pequeña
is a Spanish name
meaning ‘little one’.
She is a little one he found in a shelter
with his brother Dave.
The dark brown and light brown fur
softly fur softly a Spanish brown purring
on his lap, indoors on the couch.
She makes him happy.
She’s a bit harmless to humans,
he makes her happy too.
Remember Souris? Souris and Pequeña meowed to each other.
Souris is French for squeak squeak,
French for mouse.
In his garden a swing.
In his garden a tool shed.
In his garden fairy lights without fairies.
In his garden a pond with 6 goldfish
swimming in green water.
Sometimes Mr Matthew Calandra hangs clothes on the line in the garden with his house guest.
In his garden Pequeña.
In his garden Henry,
Myriam’s rooster.
Myriam is his French house guest.
Henry’s friendly at her neck,
sleeping in there. He likes Mr Matthew Calandra too.
Pequeña and Henry near the pond.
Near the green water and the goldfish,
just near, not hurting them.
Pequeña and Henry like each other
sometimes
Henry pecks blood on Pequeña’s head.
Sometimes in the garden comes the bush turkey,
without a name.
Sometimes Mr Matthew Calandra feeds the goldfish, sprinkling food over green water. He is the only artist in this house.
Across two weeks in October, Mathew Calandra, Emily Crockford, Annette Galstaun, Lauren Kerjan, Jaycee Kim, Catherine McGuiness, and Meagan Pelham of Studio A created an epic mural on the largest single wall at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The work celebrates the power of love and togetherness.
The mural tells the artists’ distinct personal stories of care and connection. Together, they create an electrifying whole that offers a radically optimistic response to the present moment.
It is the first such commission by an Australian State or Commonwealth collecting institution. and a remarkable milestone for Studio A and its artists. Love owls and mermaids singing in the rainbow pop was commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales for Archie Plus, 2020, and supported by the Anita Luca Belgiorno Nettis Foundation. The work will be on exhibition until late February 2021.
Mathew Calandra’s Little One poem is included in the Art Gallery of NSW mural.
Mathew Calandra
www.studioa.org.au/mathew-calandra
enquiries@studioa.org.au
Mathew Calandra has an unmistakable and arresting linear style. Sharp, sinuous, awkward and dynamic, some have likened his line-work to that of Egon Schiele, the great symbolist-expressionist artist of the late nineteenth century. Like Scheile, with his hand, Mathew transforms the most banal subject matter into something of deep mystical beauty.