These works continue Mellor's on-going exploration of celebrity culture; emphasising the cliches of type and character that the media creates, and exploiting the public's often perverse fascination with these characters. The works relate closely to Vile Affections, Mellor's on-going series of portraits of pop, political, historical figures who have each undergone her painterly amendments and interventions (Morrissey stabbed with brushes, zombie-faced Hillary Clinton, Karl Lagerfeld with a big cockroach on his head). In 2008, Mellor made a group of paintings featuring Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz - casting this icon of wholesome Americana in roles such as refugee, gay rights activist, soldier. These interventions, marked with black humour and outrageous imagery, exploit the awkwardness of upsetting our notions or existing relationships towards these figures. In the case of the paintings in this exhibition, there is the dual identity at stake of both the actress and the character they are playing. For these works Mellor draws from films mainstream, cult, trashy and deified - equalising the figures in this painted world. Each starts life as a conventional portrait before Mellor begins her process of transformation - the combative, physical handling of the paint pulling the image far from its photographic origins.
The history of portraiture - of representing the great and the good, the key figures of our age - is upheld by Mellor. There is a mixture of fascination, repulsion and affection for the subjects as well as an audacity and cheek with regards to portraying these figures, often brutally and negatively, without their knowledge or approval. In a way this embodies our current spirit of public figures being public property.
Dawn Mellor (1970, Manchester) lives and works in London. She studied at Central Saint Martins College and the Royal College of Art in London. She has has solo shows with galleries internationally, including a solo presentation at last year's Frieze Art Fair. Mellor has exhibited in museums such as Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zurich), Spacex (Exeter), PS1 (New York) and Tate Liverpool. A book of drawings by Mellor will soon be published by Patrick Frey.
THE CONSPIRATORS
DAWN MELLOR
THE CONSPIRATORS
DAWN MELLOR
10 APRIL — 15 MAY 2010
Opening reception: Saturday 10 April, 17.00 hrs
For her first solo exhibition with Galerie Gabriel Rolt, the British artist Dawn Mellor will present an expansive new series of paintings. Comprised of portraits of actresses in movie roles - the likes of Ingrid Thulin in The Damned, Kathy Bates in Misery, Charlotte Rampling in The Night Porter, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady - the works are all based on film stills. Each painting isolates the actress in the canvas, with its iconic figure subjected to warped symbolism, acts of violence and physical mutation.
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