MELISSAHERRINGTON

GALLERY DENOVO PRESENTS

HANDless solo exhibition

BY MELISSA HERRINGTON
 
Artist’s Opening Reception:  Friday, August 6th, 2010 from 5-8pm.
On display through August 29th -  First floor Gallery
The exhibition will continue in the upstairs gallery through September.
 
The work in HANDless is imbued with as much mystery as it is narrative and will open on August 6th from 5 – 8 PM at Gallery DeNovo with Melissa Herrington in attendance. Inspired by the poetry of Anne Sexton and Margaret Atwood, Herrington blended the narratives of their poems with her own aesthetic to conceive this body of work exploring the subterranean world of gender and transformation.
 
If it is possible to paint in metaphor, Melissa Herrington’s HANDless is surely the epitome of this challenge. The twenty-one paintings installed in a brick-like formation work in concert to suggest the story of a “girl without hands” whose power lies in her perseverance and the anomaly of her condition. Individually, each panel conveys a distinct mood by altered pastures of blue, black, purple, and white. Other colors from the natural world provide contrast from piece to piece, creating a familiar feeling across unfamiliar terrain.
 
“My recent paintings physically protrude beyond two dimensions,” says Herrington. “The [wood] support and the painted image are inseparable, encased in a thick layer of resin.” Inspired by the poetry of Anne Sexton and Margaret Atwood, Herrington blended the narratives of their poems with her own aesthetic to conceive a body of work exploring the subterranean world of gender and transformation.
 
In this exhibition, viewers can expect a familiar color palate inspired by the natural world, yet freshly presented through Herrington’s perspective. Herrington used acrylic mixed media, resin on wood, plaster, moss, and found objects to create 21 paintings and 1 sculptural installation for her third solo show at Gallery DeNovo. Combined with her unique layering technique and amorphous, symbolic language, these paintings work in concert, to invite further consideration. The sculpture installation, also featured in the main gallery, includes abstract trees with living moss—“skin” that keeps growing and changing color from light green to rich brown.
“The strength of this new body of work lies in such unfamiliarity”, suggests arts writer, Katey Schultz. “Herrington’s paintings are not immediately intuited, as layers of resin rise from the wood panels giving them a three-dimensional quality. Using her uniquely lyrical language, amorphous forms, lines, and openings, her paintings direct the eye inward and outward, ensnaring the viewer. This movement is immediately engaging on physical, emotional, and intellectual levels. “
 
The undercurrent of gender entrapment and the determination of the “girl without hands” raise the stakes of this exhibition. Similar to the girl, a flowering tree also suffers amputation. Life still pulses through both, but they are permanently altered. In the underworld, the girl comes face-to-face with vulnerability and, in a parallel predicament, the tree risks extinction if it cannot transform. Together, they are reborn to the topside world, made anew on their own terms.
 
Herrington’s level of skill with challenging mediums, such as resin and plant material, not to mention her debut with three-dimensional sculpture, are all a testament to her endurance as an artist. Though not literally handless herself, the message here is clear—Herrington has also been remade by this latest body of work, an exemplar of the fact that metaphor has the power to transform.

Gallery DeNovo features the unique and compelling contemporary paintings and sculptures of internationally represented artists. The gallery was established by collectors with the objective of gaining exposure in the United States for these exceptional artists. The gallery is located in the Friesen Building at the corner of Sun Valley Road and First Avenue North in Ketchum, PO Box 7214, Ketchum, 208-726.8180. Opening exhibition images will be shown on www.facebook.com/gallerydenovo. Exhibitions and artists’ works are also viewable at www.gallerydenovo.com.
 
Katey Schultz is an arts writer specializing in essays about the creative process. Her work has appeared in national and international art publications. Please visithttp://sites.google.com/site/kateyschultz/ for more information.
 
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Contact: Robin Reiners, Director
robin@gallerydenovo.com; 208.726.8180
 
Additional hi-res images are also available.
Works also viewable online – www.gallerydenovo.com