Articles

Layers of Living Memory: A Review of Julia Malakoff’s “The Poetry of Everyday Things”

By Annie Przypyszny - August 7, 2026

Annieprzypyszny.com

Julia Malakoff’s latest solo show, “The Poetry of Everyday Things” takes the broad and layered memories of a life, and revives them into new, dynamic manifestations. In Malakoff’s show, the clutter of meaningful living is captured in “curated corners” of mixed-media collage, where whimsy, warmth, and color are welcome with open arms. Delight and wonder abound in works of art that don’t shy away from play; Malakoff doesn’t simply present us with her past, but revitalizes it, contextualizes it, and imbues it with her distinctly jubilant flair. The show is dedicated to Malakoff’s late parents and her upbringing in Iowa City, giving the objects portrayed a tender gravity as well as an aesthetic appreciation: “all of my work is a celebration of living a life filled with joy,” Malakoff states.

What stands out in Malakoff’s work is its unapologetic vibrance. Her playful use of bright colors and palpable textures recalls post-impressionist artists such as Matisse, whose work Malakoff sees as “an expression of a love for life.” Like Matisse, Malakoff “aspires to use colors to tell stories,” to shape the “vignettes” she portrays in her pieces. This audacious use of bold hues and the way Malakoff contrasts them keeps her compositions from being reduced to mere ‘still life.’ While her art contains intentionally arranged scenes akin to that of the still life tradition, Malakoff’s eclectic stylistic choices “convey a sense warmth in the work,” allowing her to portray the objects “as if they have a life-like energy.”

In addition to Matisse, Malakoff finds profound inspiration from another artist: her mother. In “The Poetry of Everyday Things,” She recalls how, as a photographer, her mother would “layer her negatives in our home-based darkroom,” which Malakoff recognizes as “a catalyst to help me think about working in paper layers at an early age.” In “Reflections,” Malakoff’s photos of Iowa scenery are featured amid a background of striped patterns that allude to the photos themselves, combining both the crisp memories that snapshots capture with the blurriness of the recollection in between. Her series of four “Home Grown” pieces also incorporate photography, as well as some miniature prints of Malakoff’s other work and a sample of handwriting from her great grandmother and namesake, Julia Tabas. The scrapbook-like elements of the series transform ephemera into a display of metamemory.

Malakoff also pays tribute to her mother’s work in pottery, with many of her artworks featuring vases and vessels. Malakoff recalls how her mother “played with glazes, and created her own textures and patterns, often drawing florals into the glazes” --- a process Malakoff replicates in the cardboard vases featured in many of her show’s works, including her “Paper Flowers” triptych. The textures carved into the painted cardboard give extra dimension to the scene; Malakoff described her process of adding etchings as often being instinctual, giving them a quality of organic exuberance.

The appreciation for artisan vases is complimented in Malakoff’s work by the incorporation of plants and flowers, “another nod to [her] life in Iowa City,” where her family “had a giant vegetable garden, inspired by the fields of corn, soybeans, and Midwest produce.” Both of Malakoff’s parents had “green thumbs,” and as she grew up, the rooms of their home were filled with various flora. Like a real-life garden, the foliage in Malakoff’s painting is layered, sometimes even palimpsestic: in “Garden Musings” you can see the imprint of larger sunflowers underneath the final image. Candid elements such as this capture what it means to continually reinterpret memory, the way our past changes shape each time we look at it anew.

The significance of objects and mementos in Malakoff’s work goes beyond mere appreciation and nostalgia, however. “My hope is that the more I put [objects] into my work, the less attached I will feel when the time comes where the objects and me will need to part ways.” Malakoff recognizes that the things of our lives are transient. Still, her work immortalizes these objects and their memories, in a manner not dissimilar to the Elizabethan tradition of immortalizing the mortal beloved through a poem. Malakoff’s work contains optimism and vivacity, but also mindfulness. The objects she represents are beautiful, but her work shows that it’s the people and places they call to mind that give them their value. What Malakoff desires most of all is for her work and what it represents to have a lifting impact on others. “I make a concerted effort to put my energy into making our world a better place by creating art that can connect people in a positive way,” she says. Although based around memory, “The Poetry of Everyday Things” isn’t trapped in the past. Instead, Malakoff uses the treasured moments of her life to envision a bright and worthwhile future.

Cheery, color-saturated art will “Flourish” at the Jo Ann Rose Gallery

By Kristin Johnson / Fairfax County Times. Aug 15, 2025

They call themselves the mavens of mixed media. Julia Tova Malakoff, Holly Markhoff and Sandhi Schimmel Gold currently have a self-curated art exhibition at the Jo Ann Rose Gallery located in the Reston Community Center at Lake Anne. The exhibit, “Flourish,” highlights each artist’s unique style and builds small conversations between their work. “Flourish” focuses on color, flowers, faces, and figures, and is on view through Aug. 22.

Embrace

Holly Markhoff

“The term mixed media is when you use two or more different materials. So you could even use two very diverse kinds of paint, and it’s actually still a mixed media,” said Markhoff, who often uses both latex and acrylic paint in her pieces. She also uses paper and material to build texture and depth into her color-saturated works.

Malakoff rents a space at the Reston Art Gallery where she will have a solo show in October. It is this tie to the community that allowed the Herndon resident to sign up to show at the Jo Ann Rose Gallery three or four years ago. When the time came to decide what to include, she reached out to her friends, who both live in Richmond, to collaborate with her.

Honor

Sandhi Schimmel Gold

We “came up with “Flourish” because we’re flourishing in our art and our friendships, and we just put this show together,” said Malakoff, whose career started art adjacent as an artist representative. The job allowed her to see what people were painting, as she carried art and photography portfolios to advertising agencies.

Yellow Orchid In Blue Pot

Julia Tova Malakoff

Malakoff does not paint conventional figures. For her, furniture becomes a figure within her art. She began painting chairs and other everyday objects shortly after her parents passed away, fairly close to each other.

“I was acquiring the China, precious ornate things, you know, these everyday objects that had childhood memories attached to them,” said Malakoff. “It’s inspiring for me, like the memories, the colors, the shapes, the textures. I thought, ‘I have this living room filled with antique furniture from my grandmother and mother. You know what? I love this stuff.’ I’m putting it into my art.”

Time Out

Julia Tova Malakoff

She intended to commemorate the furniture in her art so she could eventually give those mementos away. Malakoff’s work is filled with Matisse-like painted patterns. Cardboard and similar materials are then added in the shape of furniture or flowers.

Schimmel Gold has been an artist her whole life. She began her artistic career as a painter. Then, on a trip to Venice, she became fascinated by a piece of stained glass and decided to replicate the look. She tried glass tiles, then wood cuttings, but nothing worked.

Tranquil Noon, by Holly Markhoff

Rachel Markhoff

“It was one of those eureka moments where I had a bunch of paper and a paper cutter, and thought, ‘I can make little tiles out of paper.’ I started gluing the paper onto things,” said Schimmel Gold.

She uses the pieces together like a quilt or puzzle, but makes sure that the pieces on the tiles do not line up.

“I use a lot of typography, and I switch directions, so it purposely makes your brain kind of cancel out the noise to see the image,” said Schimmel Gold, who uses cardstock and similar materials that would be thrown in the trash or recycled.

Markhoff grew up in an “artsy” family. Her mother was a writer, they owned a kiln, and sometimes they would create large family murals. She initially pursued a career in counseling. When her kids were pre-teens, she realized she needed to either pursue a master’s degree in counseling or an art career. Art won out.

Much of Markhoff’s art focuses on simple figures that are elongated, bathed in color, and sometimes surrounded by designs.

“I think there’s something powerful about having people together and connection and communication,” said Markhoff. “Even when I do just a single person, I always like them to be looking in a way that is thought-provoking.”

Curating a multi-person exhibition was a first for the artists. They set out to create groupings where their art could converse with each other. Tova Malakoff describes the 36-piece show as family fun and friendly.