Gspot:Audio/Visual Playground Presents..........
"THE PROTECTORS"MELISSA
DICKENSON
OPENING RECEPTION// SATURDAY// MAY 16TH// 7PM-10-PM
//
Free and open to the public!!!
Our
intellectual and material literacy are dependent on paper. This
material rescued our hereditary knowledge from the destructive hand of
time many times in the past. Paper is a direct reflection of our
environment and it’s diminishing state, it is also one of the
most important forms of communication. Therefore it is appropriate that
paper, which has patiently served mankind's progress, should speak
about itself, its past, ad its future.
The work I am presenting is a series of
paintings on hand-cut paper fused with acrylic substrates. They are a
use of handmade paper and organic imagery, in partnership with vivid
pigment and acrylic plastics. The dialogue created is that of struggle
between two worlds, one where the laws of nature make sense and the
other, a place in which these laws do not apply. The handmade, hand-cut
paper mirrors a diminishing natural world and the use of acrylic
plastic speaks of the faux materials derived to replace the resources
we have used up. The landscapes created are seemingly happy and nice,
but looking closer the darker side of our cyber world is revealed as
animals and plants interact with their terrain.
Melissa Dickenson received her Bachelors of Fine Art
from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2002. She has exhibited her
work locally in Maryland at the Baltimore
Museum of Art, the Rosenberg Gallery at Goucher College, Gallery
Imperato, and nationally at Rodger Lapelle Galleries in Philadelphia,
Anno Dommini and Thinkspace Galleries both in California, as well as
Transformer Gallery and American University in Washington, D.C.
Internationally, Melissa has shown her work at Youkobo Art Space in
Tokyo Japan.
Dickenson is a recipient of Maryland State Artist
Awards in both 2006 and 2008, as well as a finalist for the Walter and
Janet Sondheim Prize for 2008 and Semi- Finalist for the Trawick Prize,
2008. Most recently she was awarded an Artist Grant to attend
Masia Can Serrat, in Barcelona, Spain for fellowship in 2009.
Past exhibitions include 'Exploration' at Youkobo
Art Space, Tokyo Japan, ‘The Walter and Janet Sondheim
Prize’ at Baltimore Museum of Art, and ‘New
Artists’ at Gallery Plan B in Washington D.C. Dickenson
looks forward to two exhibitions for the spring of 2009; ‘Je ne
Sais Quoi’, at Sub-Basement Art Studios and ‘The
Protectors’ at the Gspot :Audio/ Visual Playground, both in
Baltimore, MD.