Melanie Reese

Melanie Reese is an abstract formalist painter based in Brooklyn. Her work lives between the familiar and the intangible. Rooted in imagined landscapes, she traces the contours of land, body, and mind to conjure the ephemeral immediacy and

precipitous nature of existing in today’s socio-political climate.A reflection of the times we find ourselves in, these paintings tell a tale of the battle between progress and destruction. Each painting carries a beautiful fragility

illuminated by a looming darkness; like at any moment the landscape might split open and swallow the viewer whole. Reese utilizes an array of painting and drawing media such as acrylic paint, caran d’ache, and oil pigment sticks.

Manipulation of each material creates a variety of textures, depths, and complex visual moments that combine to create a vibrant yet ominous composition. Her works are a complex dichotomy precariously poised between the human

experience and our crumbling world, held together in search of beauty. Reese (b. 1991) is an abstract formalist painter based in Brooklyn. 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 has recently shown in Affordable Art Fair NYC with Warnes Contemporary and CONTEXT Art Miami with Sims Contemporary. She has exhibited widely

throughout the United States including Dreams on Command Gallery, Warnes Contemporary, Sims Contemporary, Collar Works, Deanna Evans Projects TROVE, and THE GALLERY by Odo and has been featured in several publications

including New American Paintings Northeast Issue 134, SuboArts, Inside Artists, Studio Visit Magazine, and New Visionary Magazine.