Chelouche Gallery is pleased to present new works for Untitled Miami 2018, by artist Melanie Daniel. With crowded narrative paintings in psychedelic teals and pinks, the artist introduces us to a desolate sun-drenched paradise in the near future, where earnest characters try to reconnect with nature and rebuild their post-cataclysm world. Daniel celebrates their attempted resistance with lucid figuration, manically vibrating pattern, and giddy coloration with acidic overtones, belying the pathos underneath.
Whether reviving plant species, bottling them in terrariums, or engaging with wildlife, the youths populating Daniel’s paintings show the pervading duality of a disillusioned post-11/9 generation, rife with both utopian and dystopian narratives. In Daniel’s imagination, we are never sure of what exactly is accomplished through these efforts, but her insistent style lends itself to their idealism.
