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Asperitas
15 Paintings 15 Haikus Melanie Taylor: Painting Lucas Michael: Haiku January 8 to March 2 2024 Closing Reception: Saturday, February 24th 5-7pm This exhibition presents fifteen paintings that each bear the title of a haiku poem. Melanie Taylor’s series of paintings are interpretations of the natural environment and a consideration of memory, the passage of time, and the margin between reality and imagination. In the paintings, marks and gestural notations reveal forms observed in the landscape, allowing for process and the role of chance to exist within a visceral sense of place. This coexistence of the unpredictable and deliberate relates to the factual and uncontrollable in nature and its vulnerability to climate change. The collection of fifteen haikus was composed by Lucas Michael in February 2022, begun in NYC and completed during a stay in Uruguay while surrounded by nature. They are created through a process using word games and a form of automatic writing that combines chance with composition. We live within the sky: air, light and space are egalitarian. The exhibition is named after the asperitas cloud formation: asperitas are rare and fleeting, often arising in unstable atmospheric conditions where the wind direction changes, characterized by rippling and chaotic structures that appear like the surface of a rough sea viewed from below. Their name is derived from the Latin word asperare, meaning to roughen, make fierce or aggravate. Although not new to the world, they are the newest addition to the World Meteorological Organization International Cloud Index, incorporated in 2017 and the first new cloud type to be named in over 50 years. One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?” From The Sense of Wonder (1956) by Rachel Carson |
Roam witchier dour mod
Ever hirsute ripe brash ewe Hold hatch yet blindly Oil on canvas, 20" x 22", 2023 |
About the Artists
Melanie Taylor (b. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) received her MA Fine Art from the University of Southampton at the Winchester School of Art, UK and her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She lives and works in San Diego and in the Surrey Hills, England. She has exhibited work in the UK, USA, Mexico, Spain and India.
Lucas Michael (b. Buenos Aires, Argentina) studied in the Documentary Photography Program at the International Center of Photography, New York, NY and received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. His practice spans video, photography, drawing, sculpture and installation. He has exhibited work in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, France, Austria, Holland, Italy, Argentina and the UK. He lives and works in New York, NY.
Melanie Taylor (b. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) received her MA Fine Art from the University of Southampton at the Winchester School of Art, UK and her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She lives and works in San Diego and in the Surrey Hills, England. She has exhibited work in the UK, USA, Mexico, Spain and India.
Lucas Michael (b. Buenos Aires, Argentina) studied in the Documentary Photography Program at the International Center of Photography, New York, NY and received his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. His practice spans video, photography, drawing, sculpture and installation. He has exhibited work in the USA, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, France, Austria, Holland, Italy, Argentina and the UK. He lives and works in New York, NY.
