As your wheels turn down the bumpy roads of a small town, seemingly uninhabited except for collapsing billboards and flickering neon signs, it can be hard to remember that people reside within the hollow structures on either side of the pavement. Sprawling landscapes are reimagined with the passing of time, to be built up into a metropolitan dystopia or left alone like a barren reminder of what it once looked like. In a world concerned with betterment and beauty, it can be difficult to know how to move forward with intentionality while maintaining a delicate balance between appreciation for the past and an ambition for the future, all while remaining present in the short years we are granted.
13FOREST Gallery in Arlington, Massachusetts recognizes it as such: Boston-based artist Robert Maloney weaves themes of decaying architecture and disappearing memories to depict his tumultuous disenchantment with the human condition. On view until March 28, Maloney, an illustration professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, creates a world of colorful facades despite crumbling interiority in his solo show “Innerstates.”
At the opening for “Innerstates” on February 8, Maloney and I spoke of finding the beauty in the mundane, and how road trips with his father, William Maloney, were a catalyst for his love of architecture. The collection is a beautiful ode to the conflicting emotions the artist faced when losing his dad to Alzheimer’s in 2023. Maloney captures the process of this disease through themes of decay and the passage of time.