Biography
Melissa Skowron was born in Calgary, Alberta where she received her Bachelors of Fine Art in Painting from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2009. Skowron has participated in many local shows including the Ignite! 2012 Emerging Artist’s Show, PARK art show, and as guest designer for Make Fashion. She currently pursues a full time studio practice, and contributions to her professional development as a gallery intern at Barbara Edwards Contemporary.
Artist Statement
My paintings strive illustrate the conflict between self-perception and visibility. Using a selective colour palette, wet layers of viscous paint are piled and dried on top of each other. This leads to a construction of the figure that is an abstracted rendering of their physical qualities. There is also a visual sense of decay, a conflicting display of construction and destruction. Painted in this way, the figures invite the viewer to participate in an all-inclusive narrative, and discourage the passiveness of observation that is restricted to acknowledging that which is immediately visible.
The methodology of my work is tied to a process of layering and experimentation. I find an immerse pleasure in engaging with a painting process that benefits from a lack of control, an openness that facilitates a true collaboration between artist and material. I am strongly influenced by artists like Eric Fischl and Marlene Dumas, who strive to unburden images from their coded meaning (i.e. photographical documentation and images from popular culture.), and to transform them into pieces that aim to ‘reveal’ and not ‘display’.