Beer With a Painter: Melissa Brown
“I want to visualize the fact that, despite our perception, reality is changeable,” the Brooklyn-based artist said of her paintings.
Melissa Brown has been wearing cat-eye makeup since she was a teenager, a look she associates with her paintings and the fusion of the sacred and profane she often depicts. The cat-eye eyeliner, a trend dating back to ancient Egypt, symbolizes protection and health. Brown's artwork employs a variety of techniques such as photography, painting, printing, airbrushing, and stenciling.
Sometimes, her paintings come with QR codes that direct viewers to animated versions of the piece. One such painting, "Commute" (2020), features a hand with long fingers and press-on nails spinning meditation balls in an empty subway car passing the Brooklyn Bridge. A painted strobe effect animates the fingers and balls, a nod to British Vorticist painter Sybil Andrews.
Brown's studio is located on the second floor of a building in Flatbush, Brooklyn, near a busy deli and a braiding salon. The juxtaposition of mundane and performative elements in her artwork is reflective of the studio's environment. Brown was born in 1974 in Morristown, New Jersey, and earned her BFA in Printmaking from RISD and her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University.
She also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2000. Currently, she is a professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and co-curated the group exhibition "Does This Taste Funny? Humor in Contemporary Art," which was on display at Lehman College Art Gallery and the Gallery at Heimbold Visual Arts Center at Sarah Lawrence College.
Brown's recent solo exhibition, "Window Shopping," was presented at Derek Eller Gallery in New York, a gallery she has exhibited at since 2017. Hyperallergic inquired about her connection to art as a young person and what led her to RISD. Brown grew up near Philadelphia and spent her childhood visiting historical sites such as the Ben Franklin Museum, which featured an infinity mirror room and an interactive room with phones that allowed her to listen to historical figures.
These experiences, along with her visits to the print shop of the famous historical figure, may have influenced her decision to attend RISD when she visited college campuses.
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