David Mellen

Abstract oil painting: 'Descent'

2020

“When I start a new painting, it’s as if I’ve forgotten how to paint. I mean, once a painting is finished, that final image is so separate from the painting’s beginning, which is bu...

David Mellen (b. 1970, Chicago, IL, USA) attended the American Academy of Art and exhibited his work in his hometown of Chicago until 1994, when he moved to Europe. Over the next fiv...

David Mellen's work is not easily defined, vacillating between human flesh and metaphoric representation, the paintings beg you to look deeper and to consider their physical properties. Duchamp, de Kooning, Bacon, Giacometti, Rothko are all direct influences for Mellen, yet he can not be strictly categorized as a representational or an abstract artist. Mellen paints forms reminiscent of human bodies, building them one day at a time for the duration of several months. An endless process of addition and subtraction is at work as the loosely defined figures emerge in sharp contrast with precisely executed geometric backgrounds of neutral colors. The juxtaposition between exposed canvas, well-defined geometric background and a form as the subject of the painting is a motif that has followed Mellen’s work through the years. The entities in Mellen’s work reference actions rather than concrete characters. For example, in Descent (2020) a fall from grace...

David Mellen has proceeded to work according to his own design. He sees art as a medium of discovery rather than a display of untrammeled emotion. This has very little to do with a ...

David Mellen (b. 1970, Chicago, IL, USA) attended the American Academy of Art and exhibited his work in his hometown of Chicago until 1994, when he moved to Europe. Over the next fiv...

David Mellen (b. 1970, Chicago, IL, USA) attended the American Academy of Art and exhibited his work in his hometown of Chicago until 1994, when he moved to Europe. Over the next fiv...

This large scale oil painting on Belgian linen canvas depicts our perceived inner feelings of the people and situations we encounter through the use of bold shapes and colours. The c...

Since the late 1970’s, Younghee Choi Martin has lived and worked in Chelsea, where she was one of the earliest artists to establish a painting studio. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she has been awarded painting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the NY CAPS...

With roots in classical Greek art, architecture and mythology, Malcolm Rains explores balance and harmony and even an austerity in his elegant pain...

Lino Lago's lush, provocative paintings are exploration of color and art history as with one clear sweep he brings a classic Baroque painting into the foreground like an untold secre...

This oil painting on Belgian linen canvas depicts people and situations with whom the artist have had contact. Whilst the works are not strictly speaking, portraits of specific peopl...

This oil painting on Belgian linen canvas depicts people and situations with whom the artist have had contact. Whilst the works are not, strictly speaking, portraits of specific peop...