Delta Daydreams

A solo exhibition of work by Mel Reese, 9/22-10/22

Warnes Contemporary is excited to present its first-ever exhibition, Delta Daydreams, a selection of work by the formalist painter, Mel Reese. The series is inspired by the Mississippi Delta––an area where Reese was in residency at JX Farms earlier this year—a mysterious landscape characterized by meandering waterways and thick vegetation. The vistas she creates are grounded in reality but defamiliarized, combining observed topographies with abstract shapes and textures. Water is of central importance to Reese’s paintings, in terms of both subject and substance; she fully saturates each canvas at the beginning of her process, allowing pigment to naturally pool and flow across the surface, mirroring the natural processes that nourish and define the landscapes she reflects upon. The paradoxical vertical orientation of each painting is disorienting and distorts our understanding of ‘scape’, pushing the viewer further into a sense of being somewhere and nowhere all at once. The resulting images immerse the viewer in color, texture, and form, evoking the haunting sense of timelessness that Reese experienced while observing these environments. 

Reese (b. 1991) holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BS from Skidmore College. Reese has exhibited widely throughout the United States including Untitled Space (NYC), Maison 10 Gallery (NYC), and THE GALLERY by Odo (NYC) and is represented by Florence Contemporary Gallery in Italy. She has completed Artist-in-Residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Elsewhere Studios, and JX Farms. She has been featured in several publications including New American Paintings Northeast Issue 134, New American Painting Featured Artists, Inside Artists, Studio Visit Magazine, and was the cover artist for New Visionary Magazine Issue 6.

Reese lives and works in Greenpoint, BK with her husband and their elderly cat, Miss Puds, who hates all of Mel’s paintings and is always her toughest & most vocal critic.

Download Press Release HERE