Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Lauren Mele

Lauren lives and works in London. She got her BFA at the Art Insitute of Boston (2008) and her MA in Contemporary Art History & Theory at the Sotheby’s institute of art (2012).

The statement from the artist:

Anxiety, hesitation, lust, and gluttony are never a step too far in any direction of my life. I work from memory; memories sidestep objectivity. Their visual manifestations are intensely personal and revealing. My work makes the fleeting essence of memory, tangible; the paintings put flesh to the bones of narrative. The unreliable and organic nature of recall makes for paintings that flirt with improvisation and result in vibrating and, in my case, anxiety laden energy. Working with concepts of femininity and the undercurrents that point to notions of the feminine, androgyny and feminist; my paintings unabashedly portray women delighted in their skins. Embracing flaws, sexuality and indulgence, they urge the viewer to engage with the unsavoury sides of themselves. Social labels of grotesque and lust associated with the body interest me, my figures explore the intricacies of the two.

“All the Girls in the Line for the Bathroom” Oil on Canvas, 40×50 (cms) 2016. All the aesthetic preparations that go in to a gritty night out inevitably ends up in a line for the bathroom. Debauchery, sleaziness and edge go hand in hand with the tweaked and teased elegance of getting ready to go out. Phones out, seedy reflections in a sticky floor; sweat and bodies congregating closely, intentionally and not. Everyone is in the rhythm of the night, in and out of synch with each other. Notes from art history can be seen here, figures imitating Picasso’s Demoiselles, suggesting femininity through the ages, is transient, a concept that breathes and exudes subjectivity.
“Girly” Oil on Linen, 55×65 (cms) 2018. This image of femininity sidesteps the pretty and puts gluttony on the table. Bodies sweaty and physical; flaws are exaggerated, embraced and flaunted. These figures, using myself as a physical point of reference, exude flamboyance and confidence, two attributes I strive for in my everyday but somehow suppress. The term ‘feminine’ should be flexible and fluid, say these figures, and more strongly associated with the term ‘feminist’. Society manages to keep the two concepts fairly disassociated, when in fact both should bring the word ‘robust’ to mind.
Previous articleKen Jacobs
Next articleRobin Winters
RELATED ARTICLES

2 COMMENTS

  1. […] Lauren Mele is an artist based in London. At the moment her work centers on what she calls “fictional memories,” that is things that resonate in her mind but that have not actually happened to her. From there she has taken a deeper dive and begun looking at the figures from these fictional memories, most often images of women. Memory itself is always intensely subjective, Mele says. Recall is influenced by many, many factors. Mele begins her work with a physical space grounded in reality. From memory she structures the space on the canvas before creating a figurative scene. […]

  2. […] Lauren Mele is an artist based in London. At the moment her work centers on what she calls “fictional memories,” that is things that resonate in her mind but that have not actually happened to her. From there she has taken a deeper dive and begun looking at the figures from these fictional memories, most often images of women. Memory itself is always intensely subjective, Mele says. Recall is influenced by many, many factors. Mele begins her work with a physical space grounded in reality. From memory she structures the space on the canvas before creating a figurative scene. […]

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here