Isabella Mellado – SAIC Graduate Exhibition 2023

SAIC SHOWS 2023 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Graduates

SAIC SHOWS 2023 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Isabella Mellado

Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Painting and Drawing

Graduate Exhibition One (March)

isabellamellado.com

Isabella Mellado is a painter native to San Juan, Puerto Rico. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2018 and is set to graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023.

Estrangement is the driving force behind Mellado’s impulse to create. Her paintings, sculptures and photographs reckon with personal themes such as her relationship with the gender binary and the dichotomy that is inherent to being a diaspo-rican. Her work is autobiographical, vivid and magical-realist in style, and addresses the nexus of queerness and latinidad.

Mellado’s work has been featured at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago; Walter Otero Contemporary Art in San Juan, PR; Pulse Contemporary Art Fair in Miami; MoMa PS1 in New York, NY; MECA Art Fair in San Juan, PR; Obra Gallery in San Juan, PR; Castle of Sant’Eusanio Forconese in Castelvecchio, IT; Palazzetto Cenci in Rome, IT; and others. Mellado has also completed residency at Ox-Bow in Sagatuck, MI, Dacia Gallery in New York, NY, the Studios at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.

Isabella Mellado - The Sun

The Sun, 2022, oil on canvas, 98 x 60 in.

Allegorical sun figure in a sunflower field

Isabella Mellado - The Moon

The Moon, 2022, oil on canvas, 98 x 60 in.

Three allegorical moon figures in the ocean

Isabella Mellado - Calle Luna

Calle Luna, 2019, oil on canvas, 71 x 64 in.

Pelican-like creature with multiple moon heads

Isabella Mellado - Calle Sol

Calle Sol, 2019, oil on canvas, 72 x 64 in.

Humanoid Sun figure taking a selfie in front of a building

Isabella Mellado - Temperance

Temperance, 2022, oil on canvas, 84 x 46 in.

Six stacked figures in pink and green

Estrangement is the driving force behind my impulse to create. My paintings, sculptures and photographs come together to analyze and redefine my sense of self and belonging in the communities I inhabit. My work is autobiographical, vivid and magical-realist in style, and exists in the nexus of queerness and latinidad. The dualistic nature of my personhood causes shifts in place and point of view in the narratives I explore within my work. This cultural in-between space has allowed me to consider my audience. Being a queer Latinx of the diaspora is like being in a game of twister—my limbs are outstretched and grasping to reach several communities at once. This spidery dance is like a performance where I switch out my mask depending on who I’m relating to. The theater of my art practice is an exploration of the specifics of this performance, hoping others will relate to it too. Regardless of the subject matter I’m taking on, in these works I am always looking inward through the lens of duality—bearing in mind binaries in sexuality, gender, and nation.

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