New Collections
Alissa Polan and Melissa Manfull
I am pleased to present the latest work of Alissa Polan and Melissa Manfull. This exhibition marks the 11th installment of our New Collections series which showcases work by leading contemporary artists.
Manfull and Polan explore landscapes and create works that define a particular aesthetic that is shaped by mass media and consumerism. Each are defining new ways in which to investigate an American experience defined by desire, luxury, empire, and place.
Melissa Manfull explores themes of control and chaos in her dense application of acrylic on paper, and on panel. Her interest is on game systems as well as the dense natural landscape that create a psychological fixation, such as in gambling environments (pachinko), repetitive play machines (pinball), board games and natural phenomena. Incorporating these iconographies, Manfull creates hypnotic patterns of hyper-detailed structures, enticing viewers into a visual trance that hints at the arbitrary use of certain symbols and themes.
Alissa Polan utilizes collage and photography to examine society’s fetishistic relationship with nature and luxury. Polan sources vintage postcards after which she collages the imagery, and often inserts text borrowed from luxury design magazines to create surrealistic compositions. Polan exploits photography’s ability to mimic ownership, and examines the mechanics of capitalism, escapism, desire and ambivalence.
Polan received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and has exhibited works throughout the US including, Klowden Mann, Culver City, CA; Sonoma Valley Museum, Sonoma, CA and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA. Polan lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her work will be featured in the forthcoming exhibition, Aperture, at BLAM in Los Angeles, CA.
Manfull has exhibited in California, Montreal, London and Boston. Her awards include the Armory Center for the Arts Teaching Fellowship, Palm Springs Art Museum Summer Teaching Residency, and Los Angeles Printmaking Society Scholarship. Manfull received her MFA from Concordia University Montreal, Canada. Her work is currently on view in the exhibition Straddling Boundaries curated by Ricardo Rodriquez at FOCA in Los Angeles, CA. You can link to a recent interview with Melissa via FOCA HERE.
Please feel free to e-mail me at h@hmxaa.com with any questions, or if you would like more information about the artists. I hope you enjoyed the New Collection!