Maddy Le Mel: Embedded Histories

Louis Stern Fine Arts is pleased to present Maddy Le Mel: Embedded Histories.  The exhibition opens on Saturday, July 16, with a reception for the artist from 6-9 pm and continues through Saturday, September 3, 2005.

Collage, sculpture and installation artist Maddy Le Mel is the most meticulous of scavenger/poets.  A significant number of her primary materials such as thread, bits of photos, photo transfers, old nails, rice paper, wood, wire and transistors, to less inventive eyes, would appear to be the seemingly useless remnants of daily routine. However as selected, re-sculpted and transformed by Le Mel, the objects function as collaborators in a provocative articulation of a delicate yet utterly tireless force of life.   

With titles such as Shock and Awe, Plus One, Infidels and Weapons of Mass Destruction, Le Mel’s pieces reference contemporary phraseology to marked effect.   Housed in wire-framed plexiglass boxes, the “infidels” consist of a variety of unsprouted grains and paper.  The factual “weapons of mass destruction” in Weapons of Mass Destruction are nothing more destructive than nails.   Most all of this new work showcases a cloudy textured plexiglass, providing the compositions with a dreamy half-veiled ambience.  In a poignant balancing act, each work animates a new physical reality even as memory of the old remains intact.

Ms. Le Mel’s work is included in numerous public and private collections and has been featured in exhibition throughout California. Ms. Le Mel was featured in our Imaginary Realities/Surrealism Then and Now group exhibition and this installation marks her first solo show with the gallery.