CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Melinda Schawel

Using traditional media in unconventional ways - papers collaged, woods sanded, ripped away, covered in ink washes, written on, and waxed - Schawel’s mixed media works are experimental iterations driven by a love of materials and surfaces, and the search to find the optimum point where ideas, technique and media come together.

'Schawel stimulates distinctive and extraordinarily nuanced mark-making which become mediations on the nature of paper as much as they are concerned with Nature itself. Her current technique is one born of accident (the unexpected tearing of an over-worked surface during an earlier project) but once an accident is saved within an artwork, it should more accurately be described as editing. For such a gently pliable surface as paper, Schawel employs some surprisingly tough love via drills, scalpels and sanding. She starts with an extremely thick 640-gram weight paper which allows her to cut and peel distinct ridges and valleys resulting in a low bas-relief surface. Inks and fluid acrylics are painted onto the torn surfaces and also poured then dispersed into organic shapes using plastic sheets.

The resultant pigment passages are either opaque and glossy or diluted and washed, ghostlike traceries that recall the spiders’ webs of their original inspiration. There is an inevitable association with nests (Schawel’s protective instincts at play) but also of undersea creatures, sponges, urchins and the like. This is not so surprising as she also expresses delight at the patterns formed on inter-tidal beach zones by the discarded balls of sand left by Sand Bubbler crabs. These forms find their own way into the artist’s work through clustered drill holes resembling celestial star maps. Travelers have used stars for millennia to guide them to sanctuary and in these works, it is easy to recognise that Schawel now is doing the same.'
Excerpt of essay by Andrew Gaynor 2016

'In line with previous series in which I explore themes of vulnerability and the delicate balance between control & unpredictability, my latest body of work entitled Protected was inspired by a recent trip to the South Island of New Zealand where I came across the extraordinary handiwork of the nursery web spider. True to its name, this rather large, furry creature builds intricate web tents, wrapped tautly across the tips of various shrubs to serve as protective nurseries for her newborn. There is a perverse sort of beauty in these webs in that while they protect the vulnerable baby spiders, they also appear to be suffocating the plant life trapped within. The similarity in what we do as humans - wrapping those closest to us in a protective cocoon without necessarily acknowledging the effect we have on our changing environment - really resonated and as a result, thoughts about self preservation, fragility and the interconnectedness of things also permeate these works.'
Melinda Schawel 2016

Born in Illinois, USA, Melinda Schawel received a BA in Fine Art and Communication from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1993 and a Postgraduate Degree in Printmaking from RMIT, Melbourne in 1996. She has exhibited regularly since 1995 and has been selected for a number of prestigious commissions including the Westin Hotel and the Park Hyatt.

Schawel was a finalist in the 2016, 2015 and 2013 Nillumbik Prize, and the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award in 2015 and 2012. She recently undertook a residency at the Art Vault in Mildura, and her work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, Crown Casino, Geelong Regional Gallery and the Royal Museum of Fine Art in Antwerp, Belgium.

CATALOGUE ESSAYS
Protected, by Andrew Gaynor 2016
Traverse, by Marguerite Brown 2014

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Letting Go 2016
ink & pencil on torn and perforated paper
104cm x 75cm
(framed size 120 x 89cm)
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
Sold
Sold

Close 2017
ink & pencil on torn & perforated paper
152cm x 104cm , framed
Sold
Sold

Hold Steady 2017
ink & pencil on torn & perforated paper
75cm x 105cm , 91 x 120cm framed
RESERVED
$4,900 AUD

Lighten Up 2017
ink & pencil on torn & perforated paper
75cm x 105cm , 91 x 120cm framed
$4,900 AUD

Bloom 2016
ink & pencil on torn and perforated paper
28cm x 38cm
(framed size 46 x 56cm)
$1,450 AUD

Protected 2015
ink on torn paper
75cm x 104cm
(framed size 93 x 120cm)
$4,600 AUD

Small Cluster V 2016
ink & pencil on torn and perforated paper
38cm x 57cm
(framed size 53 x 72cm)
Sold
Sold

Bundle 2016
ink & pencil on torn and perforated paper
76cm x 56cm
(unframed)
$2,400 AUD

Sky Full of Stars III 2016
ink & pencil on torn and perforated paper
56cm x 77cm
(unframed)
$2,400 AUD

Coming Together Breaking Away 2015
multi plate etching ed 1/30
70cm x 100cm
(unframed)
$1,500 AUD