Nina Meledandri
bones

Media: handmade abaca & cotton, razor clam shells, thread
Size: 8" x 8" x .5"
$450

Artist Statement:
Every artist has the desire to make something that has not yet been seen, the need to connect to truth in a unique way, the drive to create the undeniable. When I returned to mixed media work after a lengthy hiatus, I began by making small pieces from discarded works on paper, scraps of fabric and anything lying around the studio, including organic material in various states of decay. Wanting to make larger works, I began by using commercially produced papers as a ground but felt restricted starting with something that I had not made and to which I had no emotional connection. In the beginning, making paper was a means to create the substrate myself but as I immersed myself in the process, a new avenue of exploration opened to me. I find myself creating paper not only to be used as raw material in subsequent works, but also to explore paper as a material that can straddle the line between two and three dimensional work.

My primary intent, regardless of media, is to provide the viewer access to an interior, recognizable place, be it a reminder of the familiar or the discovery of the previously unknown. To this end my language relies on that which is primal to all humans; forms which exist in the natural world we share. As a painter this means symbols: eggs, pods, spirals, as a photographer I intimately explore flowers in all their stages and with mixed media I incorporate resonant organic matter into the paper itself.

I am always searching for a fluid transition between the recognizable and the unknown. When working with paper it is often this use of organic material, transformed when embedded in paper. The ordinary can become jewel-like or corporal or mysterious while the paper itself may morph in a multitude of ways, perhaps into a veil, or a scaffold or even a brushstroke. The resulting works then become stories of the human experience which itself weaves between the sublime and the mundane. My process always guides the outcome and I work with as little preconception as possible, relying instead on exploration: I gather my materials around me and then I wander. Often I will half press a dozen or so sheets in a variety of colors and textures at the start of the studio day, a process that is similar to laying out a palette of paint. Then, as I work, it is possible to pursue multiple directions at once, take off on tangents and follow impulses. At the end of a work session, I will use all the scraps of pressed pulp, mangled flowers and bits of fabric, cord, etc. in ways that are unexpected and which are invigorating for my process; often creating a jumping off point for the next day.

Biography

Nina Meledandri, a native New Yorker, is a painter and a photographer living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As a painter she has shown extensively throughout the NY area and was represented by the David Findlay Gallery in NY where she had 2 solo shows. As a photographer she has been published by the NY Times Magazine, Architectural Digest, New York Magazine and the Village Voice among others. The cornerstone of Meledandri’s process both as a painter and a photographer is daily practice. As a painter it takes the form of daily watercolors that she has been making since 1996. As a photographer she has posted to a minimum of 3 blogs each day for over 15 years. Meledandri recently began making paper which she uses as a foundation for mixed media work. This body of work is strongly rooted in her love of the natural world.

https://gallery.meledandri.com/