Reese (b. 1991) holds an MFA from SVA and a BS from Skidmore College. She holds an MFA from SVA and a BS from Skidmore College. She has completed Artist-in-Residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Elsewhere Studios, and JX Farms. Reese recently had a solo show at Warnes Contemporary Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited widely throughout the United States including Collar Works (Troy, NY), Deanna Evans Projects TROVE (online), 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, and New Visionary Magazine.
Reese lives and works in Greenpoint, BK with her husband, their new baby son
Statement
Melanie Reese is a Brooklyn-based observational painter inspired by formalism. Lines, shapes, colors, and textures are as central to her work as is the process of creating them. Moving between abstract elements and familiar structures allows her work to echo the representational through symbolic formalism.
This Delta Daydreams series focuses on her experience in the Mississippi Delta. A time spent surrounded by a dark, mysterious nature, seemingly suspended in time, and drenched in water inspired an investigation of body and landscape.
Embracing the body as the vessel and nature as the foundation of human existence, Reese seeks to generate conversations around the fraught relationship of humans and nature. She utilizes an array of water-based media such as acrylic paint, Caran D’Ache, and water-soluble oil pastels. Manipulation of each material creates a variety of textures and explores expression through color, line, and form.
Reese’s observations are a particular confluence of quiet distilled down forms and bold textures that, when thoughtfully constructed, her paintings become narrative. A tale of the battle between “progress and destruction”, Reese’s work explores the complex dichotomy between the human experience and our crumbling world.