What keeps things together, when things fall apart

Melanie Colosimo

​January 17 - March 3, 2020

Featuring a large of body of new and recent work, this exhibitions represents a turn in Colosimo’s art as her rigorous drawing practice takes sculptural form. Over the last five years key drawings have served as an impetus for the adaptation of utilitarian materials often associated with construction, such as pylons and safety vests, deployed toward dynamic sculptural forms. A key figure in the National and Atlantic Canadian Art scene, Colosimo will be in residence at the Gallery and Memorial University’s School of Fine Arts at Grenfell Campus from January 5 to 17.

Ingenious in her use of material, Colosimo draws out larger themes of collectivity, access and care, critically examining ideas of progress and proto-masculinity in the process. Colosimo says of her work: “My subjects are temporary utilitarian objects that connote construction, a ‘work in progress’ or the formative states. They are symbols of liminality, thresholds between a previous state of being and the next phase. I explore this liminal state; not only through the completion of a work but also during the phases of creation and process.” 

Based out of Halifax, NS, Melanie Colosimo work focuses on strong, structural materials to explore identity, liminality and progress. She received a BFA from Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB (2006) and an MFA from the University of Windsor, in Windsor, ON (2011). Her work has been screened and exhibited in festivals and galleries internationally and across Canada such as AKA Gallery (SK) the Art Gallery of Windsor (ON), the Atlantic Film Festival (NS), Eastern Edge Gallery (NL), and Mount Saint Vincent University Gallery (NS). Her work is currently travelling southern China as part of the exhibition Maud Lewis and the Nova Scotia Terrior. She has participated in a variety of residencies such as the CFAT local Artist in Residence, University of Windsor Research Residency and the Banff Centre’s Thematic Residencies and at the Vermont Studio Centre in Johnson, Vermont. Curated by Grenfell Art Gallery Director Matthew Hills, What holds us together when things fall apart opens with a reception Friday 17 January at 7 pm Grenfell Art Gallery. Drinks and light snacks will be served. As always, all are welcome.

Grenfell Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the School of Fine Arts, Grenfell Campus Memorial University, Scholarship in the Arts, and the Canada Council for the Arts.