Mel Reese

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Melanie Reese is a Brooklyn-based observational painter inspired by formalism. A complex layering of abstract elements allows her work to echo the representational through symbolic formalism. Her most recent work focuses on the increasingly tethered connection between bodily autonomy and the global climate crisis.

Embracing the body as the vessel and nature as the foundation of human existence, Reese seeks to generate conversations of sustainable choice through the lens of bodily autonomy and landscape. 

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Utilizing her entirely unique painting through mono-printing, liquid-tape process, Reese’s observations are a particular confluence of quiet distilled down forms and loud symbolic patterning. Through precise layering of minimalist forms, she is generating a lexicon of intrinsically human gestures that––when combined with bold, vaginally-inspired, and historical patterns––her paintings become narrative.

Reese (b. 1991) holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, a Post-Baccalaureate from San Francisco Art Institute, and a Bachelor of Science from Skidmore College. She has completed Artist-in-Residencies at Vermont Studio Center in 2017 and Elsewhere Studios in 2013 and will be attending, the nocefresca Residency & JX Farms in 2023 and the Chateau Orquevaux Residency in 2024.

Reese has exhibited widely throughout the United States including Untitled Space (NYC), Maison 10 Gallery (NYC), and THE GALLERY by Odo (NYC) and has been featured in several publications including New American Paintings Northeast Issue 134, New American Painting Featured Artists, Inside Artists, Studio Visit Magazine, Canvas Rebel, and A Women’s Thing.

Reese lives and works in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and their elderly cat, Miss Puds, who hates all of Mel’s paintings and is always her toughest & most vocal critic.

Website: www.melreese.com

Email: studio@melreese.com
Instagram: @melaniereese