Melissa Vogley Woods

Well seen becomes sight and song itself Hammond Harkins Gallery, 2021

"Well seen becomes sight and song itself" is an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, and a mural installation that borrows from two artworks made by Modernist artists Charles Sheeler and Morton Schamberg. I am specifically interested in a set of watercolor still lives the two artists painted in 1918 (during the Spanish flu) in their shared studio. I use these artworks, history, and circumstance as a departure point to explore the complexities of their time, our time, and the unknowable future ahead through the refuge, fantasy, and energy of gazing at plants... or, in my case, gazing at someone who was gazing at plants. By focusing on these two paintings and the relationship of these artists I aim to create works that draw in the gaze and direct the viewer to look close.

In my work, I reclaim historical production to dispel the ideas that history is in the past or static; instead, it reverberates and repeats, and we carry it in ourselves and through generations. What can we do with the history we hold? How can we use it to transform our experiences or future? 

DESCRIPTION: A collection of sculptural objects and paintings hang on a long narrow mural. of graduating color fields. The sculptural works on the wall are shapes and in a square format and featuring a vibrant, multi-colored patterned surface that looks like stone inlay with a high polished plaster. The imagery comprises a blend of floral and botanical elements and architectural shapes including the alcove, arch and columns. On the floor centrally located is a meandering wavy long table with marble like objects for touching