Melissa Brown
NYC
January 4 - February 3, 2018
Generously funded by The Hillsdale Fund
Artist's Statement
I’m interested in how painting expands perception. I paint from reality - views out of windows, cab rides, private jokes, dreams - but moments in reality that are double takes, eurekas, visual puns, and reflections: re-arrangements of my thoughts. It’s my goal to transform what is banal or deeply personal into an archetype, like a Tarot card. In fact, my paintings and animations are influenced by the Tarot and other fantasy-related paper ephemera such as money and lottery tickets.
In addition to painting, I organize and create performances that pitch the power of fantasy and imagination against chance. During the 2009 Nuit Blanche, I hosted ‘How To Win The Lottery’ in the Toronto financial district, a performance whose goal was to win the lottery with thousands of other people by playing identical sets of numbers, attempting to make collective fantasy a reality. Recently, I’ve also been organizing winner-take-all poker games in which the players are artists, and the pot is a new art collection formed by chance. These poker tournaments have taken place at the think tank Where, Nada New York 2015, Essex Flowers and Safe Gallery.