Maybaum Gallery is pleased to present From Prow to Wake, a solo exhibition by Canadian born and Israel-based artist Melanie Daniel. In Daniel’s psychedelic, richly-textured landscapes, figures inhabit otherworldly ecosystems in which nature runs riot. She draws on mythology, folklore, and personal association to create fantastical vistas that hint at narratives just beyond our grasp. Her unnatural palette, dense areas of vibrating pattern, and skewed perspectives underscore the uneasy relationship between the subjects and their environment. Daniel’s big, brash, and strangely beautiful works are cautionary yet hopeful. Please join us for the reception on Thursday, November 6th from 5-7pm.

From Prow to Wake unveils imagined pictures of this world with an open ended sense of self discovery. Themes or where land meets water allude to the last place one might reach before a new frontier. Symbols such as boats and shamans indicate a transient, nomadic and perhaps fleeing nature to the loose narratives presented in this new body of paintings. A kinetic energy created by the linear markings and floating planes lends itself to an itinerant almost de-rooted state in seeking refuge perhaps subconsciously through the fluidity of movement throughout each painting. As an artist, Daniel is like a sieve processing so much information from today’s current context with her unique perspectives having grown up within Canada’s social culture and now surviving in her home of many years with her family in Israel. 

Using shadows of human figures often as secondary presences to the animal and plant kingdom, Daniel’s paintings bring into question the hierarchy that has been established by civilization. Great value is placed on the survival of these kingdoms while positioning human figures in roles of curiosity. Her compositions pull from 19th century paintings while her treatment of space embraces some of Matisse’s flat planes in conjunction with a lushness created by translucent layers of oil paint juxtaposed with details.