THE COLLECTOR: Melodie Provenzano

I have always had a keen appreciation for fine art, from the work of known masters to the edgier underground names that skirt the edge of the mainstream art world. Photography and art have a long and intertwined history, and I avidly collect works from both mediums. In my blog series THE COLLECTOR, I will be featuring several pieces that I have collected, or pieces that I simply appreciate for their meaning and aesthetic beauty.

Melodie Provenzano
Bunny Ride, 2008
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, 48 by 48 inches

The iconography of the figurines in Bunny Ride was what grabbed me immediately—this naive ceramic bunny sitting on top of such a menacing menagerie. The warty toad and tusked boar are reminiscent of creatures from a Miyazaki Anime film (especially Princess Mononoke) and the razor-toothed shark is an exact likeness of a bathtub toy I had when I was young. The stage seems set for a drama about to unfold, one full of ominous and foreboding danger….

As I have found after spending some time with Melodie’s work, her drawings and paintings reveal how dangerous relationships like these manifest themselves in real life through their analogues in both the human and animal kingdom, both literally and symbolically. The animals and combinations themselves seem to reference the more base emotions and the simplest of human archetypes.

And while much of her work revolves around the tension and anticipation of these created dramatic tableaus, I have to question the nature of these creatures. Are they toys? Are they just paint on canvas? Are they representative of something else, something either purer or more insidious? This subtle narrative runs through several more thematically linked works.

Thanks so much to Lubna Abu-Osba for inviting Catherine Johnson and myself to the Norwood Club (one of the New York City’s finest and most elegantly decorated private clubs) for a wonderful evening and art auction hosted by Karen Boltax of the Boltax Gallery. Over $50,000 in proceeds went to assist Partners In Health with the relief efforts in Haiti!

See more of Melodie’s work at the Melodie Provenzano page on Facebook.
Melodie Provenzano is represented by the Lyons Wier Gallery in New York City.