FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Melissa McGill: Slip Side

February 10 - March 11, 2006

Opening reception for the artist, Friday, February 10, 2006 5:00 - 8:00pm

Skestos Gabriele Gallery is pleased to present the Chicago premier exhibition of work by New York-based artist Melissa McGill. The exhibition includes two new photographs and several sculptural objects made from blown glass and porcelain.

In her delicate objects and quiet photographs, McGill transforms the mundane into something otherworldly, without losing sight of the original. Her art is about discovering the hidden spaces and forms that exist in everyday life: a puddle of water in the neighborhood park becomes a window into another world; the inside of a collectible figurine found at a flea market takes the new shape of a majestic life-size sculpture. For McGill, the process of transformation is about discovering a new reality from a spatial void or a fleeting moment in time.

Her creative production involves casting or tracing the negative spaces of existent, found forms, in order to reinterpret them into something completely new. McGill's sculptural installation Between the Two consists of seventy-three black hand-blown glass elements suspended from the gallery's ceiling. The configuration of the glass pieces and their specific shapes derive from a published photograph of Bernini's famous marble sculpture, Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25 (Galleria Borghese). The artist sketched the negative spaces and folds of the Bernini sculpture and had these shapes interpreted into glass elements. In this piece, McGill explores and gives form to that which only exists as space. The artist furthers her investigation of creating something new from the intangible by using a photograph of the Bernini sculpture as her source material, rather than an actual object. Through this practice, the artist addresses issues of perception and representation.

McGill earned a Bachelor's of Fine Art degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited throughout the world, including the Power House in Memphis and Compton Verney in Warwickshire, England. The artist and the gallery wish to extend a special thanks to The Arts/Industry Residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and the Wheaton Studio Residency at Wheaton Village, where most of this work was realized.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 11:00am - 6:00pm, Saturday 12:00 - 5:00pm.

Please contact the gallery for more information at 312.243.1112 or info@skestosgabriele.com.