Exhibition Dates | October 15 - December 15, 2025
Opening Reception | November 1, 3 - 5pm
PRESS BOX
(San Francisco, October 3, 2025) Maybaum Gallery is pleased to present Yours to Inherit, 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 amok. 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 nuanced relationships between the subjects and their environment.
Yours to Inherit unveils imagined pictures of this world with an open-ended sense of self-discovery. Themes of where land meets water allude to the last place one might reach before a new frontier. Symbols like boats and shamans indicate a transient, nomadic, and almost fleeting nature to the narrative, while a kinetic energy, created by the linear markings and floating planes, lends itself to an itinerant state through the fluidity of movement within each painting. As an artist, Daniel is like a sieve— processing information from today’s current context through the lens of having grown up in Canada and now living 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 nineteenth-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.
"These paintings are a form of storytelling," writes Melanie Daniel. "They're a way of preserving personal mythologies in a world that is slowly being erased by time and the elements. They invite viewers to reflect on themes of impermanence, resilience, and the relationship between humanity and nature."
During the day, urban metropolises follow the dictates of functionality and efficiency, yoked to conduct evaluated for optimization and leaving little room for breathing. Upon nightfall, however, the city unmasks its invisible side and creates a quiet space for exploration and magic. When we look out at a dark and dusky vista, tiny lights reach out into the horizon and serve as a reminder of the vastness of the world and that we are all but one minuscule glowing dot in this blanket of darkness. And yet, if we accept that every individual glowing light illuminates a living being’s life, their hearts and minds, histories and stories, a sense of interconnection with the greater world feels possible."
"In a world that prioritizes the new and the shiny, there’s something profoundly valuable about pausing to appreciate the beauty of decay. Yours to Inherit features a forgotten home, crumbling yet full of history. It stands as a silent witness to the stories of lives once lived, now of a bygone era that is both haunting and beautiful. Nature reclaims what humanity has left behind— moss creeps up crumbling walls, mushrooms form a dense pathway up a stairway, and trees grow through windows and roof. It is a reminder of life’s transience and a testament to the enduring power of the natural world," says Daniel.
GALLERY HOURS
Tuesdays - Saturdays 10:30 am - 5:30 pm.
Please contact us for a private viewing.
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After philosophy and literature studies at UBC and Concordia University, Melanie Daniel completed her MFA at Bezalel Academy in Tel Aviv. Daniel has had numerous exhibitions internationally, including solo exhibitions at Asya Geisberg Gallery, NY; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami; Hiro Hiro Artspace, Taipei; the Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen; Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv; Ashod Museum of Art, Israel; Shulamit Gallery, Los Angeles; and Kelowna Art Gallery, British Colulmbia, among others. She has received press in publications such as Harper's Magazine, Border Crossings Magazine, Young Space New York, Maake Magazine, Artnet, Newsweek, Frieze, CBC/Radio Canada, The Huffington Post, 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, and the NARS Foundation Residency in New York City. In 2020 she completed a position as the Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Grand Valley State University, MI.
Maybaum Gallery was founded in 2018 by Christina Maybaum. The gallery represents emerging and mid-career artists with a focus on process-driven work that reveals the artist's hand. Located in downtown San Francisco, the gallery comprises 2,000 square feet of exhibition space for solo shows as well as additional viewing space for our growing roster of artists. In addition to rotating exhibitions, the gallery provides private art consulting services to meet clients' unique art needs.
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For press inquiries and images, please contact 415.658.7669 or christina@maybaumgallery.com