Melanie Daniel

In Melanie Daniel’s psychedelic, richly-textured landscapes, figures inhabit otherworldly ecosystems in which nature runs riot. Her unnatural palette, dense areas of vibrating pattern, and skewed perspectives underscore the uneasy relationship between the subjects and their environment. The human presence overwhelmed by the natural world is reminiscent of Jules de Balincourt, Hernan Bas, or Lisa Yuskavage. Daniel’s big, brash, and strangely beautiful works are cautionary yet hopeful. They show the resilience of nature, as plants and flowers intermingle with graffitied ruins and threaten to overrun the canvas.

After studies in Canada, Melanie Daniel completed her BFA and MFA at Bezalel Academy, Israel. Solo exhibitions include Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark, Hiro Hiro Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, Ashod Museum of Art, Israel, Shulamit Gallery, Los Angeles, and Kelowna Art Gallery, BC, among others. Her work is included in collections such as the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Harvard Business School, and the Brandes Family Art Collection. She has received press in publications such as The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, Artnet, Border Crossings Magazine, Young Space New York, Maake Magazine, Newsweek, Frieze, Haaretz, CBC/Radio Canada, Beautiful Decay, and the Artists Magazine. Daniel is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, the 2009 Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Painter, a Creative Capital Grant, the NARS Foundation Residency in New York City, and the Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Grand Valley State University, MI.