Today we’d like to introduce you to Malado Francine.
Hi Malado, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am an artist who makes work in multiple mediums- I work between film, painting, writing, and sculpture. I have always known what I wanted to do – art is more a calling than a choice!
One great thing about Los Angeles is that it has so many different landscapes and neighborhoods, that you end up discovering microclimates within the larger city, and making them your own. Los Feliz is my LA village!
I also grew up in a village in the more traditional sense. My formative experience stems from a chapter in West Africa, where I spent my childhood with my brother and parents. We lived between a rural Senegalese village and the capital city, Dakar, and also Bamako, Mali. To me, a village is an intimate community that looks to its members for inspiration and support.
These very different lived experiences all inform who I am, and how I relate to my current community in LA, and the artwork that I create.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I think one of my main obstacles is also a gift– breaking through the barriers of people’s prejudices. Because my first name, Malado, is African, and my father’s last name, Tejeda, is Mexican/Spanish — my identity often confuses people. I usually have to spell my first name when I meet someone, and explain its origins. I am proud of my diverse lived and genetic histories, and have made artwork about it. I love having an exotic name! My artwork celebrates difference and multi-culturality, often navigating intersections of culture in an attempt to create “bridges” of connection across communities and aesthetic traditions.
Now that the art world is opening up to people of different backgrounds with unusual names like mine, and also to more women artists– my name may finally be considered more of a positive attribute than a hindrance.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My newest series of paintings, drawings, and sculptures, reference the spark or the meeting point between the ancient and the future — an attempt to generate a feeling of — “deep time” as painter Bill Jensen described of them. Fragments of ancient artifacts, talismanic symbols, and AI creatures – themes include ideas around archaeology, space exploration, empathy, and the future of humanity– esoteric themes that meld the past and future through a lens of spiritual sensibility in psychedelic color.
This year I was also honored to receive the Pollock Krasner Foundation grant. One of the projects stemming from this grant is cataloguing my extensive inventory of works, both sold and in the studio. It is really interesting to look at one’s trajectory through time, revisit series and shows from the past, and rediscover beloved artworks. It will also allow me to share with others the breadth of my oeuvre- a perspective on where I have come from, and where I may wish to go next in my work.
What makes you happy?
I practice daily happiness through gratitude, meditation, and acts of kindness. Part of my fascination with Los Angeles is in its capacity to inspire spiritual growth. There is an end-of-the-world frontier vibe to southern California that resonates with me – it inspires deep searching and contemplation.
I love the mission of your magazine, and how it is through recommendations that you grant interviews. The idea that you will reach out to the people I recommend and that it may benefit them in some way, is a great way to pay it forward. Thank you!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maladofrancine.com
- Instagram: @malado_francine
- Facebook: @malado_francine
- Other: Vimeo: @maladofrancine
Image Credits
All images courtesy of the artist. 1) Early Woman, 2021. 2) Empathy Machines, 2021. 3) Hovercraft, 2022. 4) Maze Mind, 2021. 5) Studio view with: Technicolor Fragment, 2021, and Birdlike Female, 2021.
