TRANSIENCE: A Selection of Works 2014 - 2019
The artwork of Melissa Rubin
February 7 - March 20
Opening Reception: Friday, February 7 - 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
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Melissa Rubin
, a New York City and Vermont-based artist, has previously exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions at Atlantic Gallery, NYC: John Molloy Gallery, NYC; Canal Street Art Gallery, Bellows Falls, VT; Burgdorff Gallery, Southern Vermont College, Bennington, VT; the Pelham Art Center; the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, CA, and many other venues. Her work has been featured in
ARTnews
Magazine, on
CBS This Morning
, and has been used in performances and movie sets. Melissa has been the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner and a New York Foundation for the Arts grants, as well as a Fulbright teacher fellowship to Japan. She was a 2017 participant at the Master Abstraction Residency at MassMoCA, and was recently awarded the inaugural Binnie Bernstein grant to attend the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA. You can view more of her work at:
melissarubinart.com
and follow her on Instagram:
@melissarubinart
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Transience
is the state in which I find myself on a regular basis; whether I’m confronting the ephemeral, fleeting nature of the emotions that fuel my art-making, or the physical and emotional quality of a life of transitions split between two geographical locations: New York City and Cambridgeport, Vermont. Juxtaposing my urban and rural abodes, there is a tension within my art-making process that struggles to make meaning and connections between the more human-made environment and the natural one. The work I chose to include in this exhibition spans five years, and within that time frame, there have been various life experiences that have shaped the work and the materials I choose to work with.
The recent works, 2017 – 2019, are from my NIGHT VISION(s) series. Originally exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Atlantic Gallery in New York City, this work is a visual exploration of the nocturnal, tonal world of the city, informed by my struggle with insomnia. In this series of works, I delve into my cycle of sleeplessness, emphasizing the repetition of evenings awake, of light diffused yet shining through, creating a muffled luminosity through my use of mixed media, which includes graphite, cold wax, metal leaf, powdered pigments and oils. There is an endless play of dark and light, of transparent blacks, grays and patinated whites, cutting through the night, making its way onto the walls, and into my psyche. Fragmented light slices through the windows, broken up by slatted blinds, as horizontals repeat and divide the visual plane, allowing glimpses of other worlds, just beyond reach, hovering before, but not fully in sleep. I see this as my very urban affliction; I sleep much better in the quiet and pastoral beauty of Vermont.
The work that spans 2014 – 2016 is also a manifestation of my interaction with the environment, and the effects that environment may have on my outer and inner life. My studio is in Rockaway Beach, Queens, in New York City, and the work reflects this urban ocean environment. Living and working a mere 400 ft. from the Atlantic Ocean, I experienced, first-hand, the destruction of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. (I know Vermonters are no stranger to the destructive power of wind and water as Hurricane Irene left a path of ruin throughout the state in 2011). This work is a direct result of that experience, being in Sandy’s path for hours on that night, October 29, 2012. After the water receded, and I was able to see the extent of the devastation, my art took on a new sense of urgency; it needed to be made in order to process the trauma I experienced. This work was also first viewed in 2014 in New York City in my solo exhibition
Surfacing
at the John Molloy Gallery
.
The four smaller pieces, from the ‘Fragments’ series, directly reference the shards of tiles and pottery cast up from the sea, and remnants of people’s homes that were strewn across the beach after the hurricane. Although the destruction was all around, it was crucial to move forward, to rebuild and renew. The ocean now has new meaning to me; it is a vital and powerful life force that can provide and take away at the same time. The transient nature of water, the tides, and all it’s rhythms, has earned my deepest respect and awe.
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