Dana Melamed "Transforming Voids"

Lesley Heller Workspace

poster for Dana Melamed "Transforming Voids"

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Lesley Heller presents the sculptures and wall pieces of Dana Melamed. It is her first show with the gallery. This exhibition represents an important milestone in Melamed’s work, namely the transition from wall pieces with three dimensional elements to sculptures, expanding her narrative of the ongoing power struggle between humanity and nature.

In her previous exhibitions, Melamed has been dealing with the effects of human aggression against nature and mankind. The primal drive for survival is ingrained in both the human organism and nature, thus the struggle is a never ending cycle. In her new work, Melamed is disengaging

Reflection on Dynamics, 2011 from the walls to create sculptures in the form of bio-mechanical structures, symbolizing the outcome of the struggle. She focuses on DNA, the genetic code programmed into every living organism, which dictates much of its behavior. Battle lines are drawn at the “transitional voids,” and each DNA is driving its organism into the opponent’s environment, to fill the voids and claim it as its own.

Melamed’s use of organic materials alongside industrial ones, and destructive techniques, such as scorching and slashing, all support this narrative. The use of fire in her process fuses the pieces together as well as destroys certain elements in the work. Mechanical tendrils grow organically on the surface and into the space around it. Melamed: “The nature of this struggle, for survival, is what makes it so violent”.

Dana Melamed is an Israeli native and has worked in New York for the past 7 years.

[Image: Dana Melamed "Reflection on Dynamics" (2011) mixed media, 31.5 x 14 x 7 in.]

Media

Schedule

from December 14, 2011 to January 22, 2012

Opening Reception on 2011-12-14 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Dana Melamed

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