Everything All At Once

Melinda Laszczynski
February 5th -March 1st

ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a compulsive collector of things that have potential. My studio is filled with materials I’m sure are magical- gold vinyl fabric, a baby pool shaped like a crab, scraps of acrylic paint peeled from the insides of jars. I’m partial to shiny stuff, bright colors, and things that have inherently humorous or contradictory qualities- fluorescent pink treated lumber, for example. Hardware stores and dollar stores are two of my favorite places to collect these. Most of the tools that I paint with are from these places too- pastry tips, squeegees, and spatulas, piping and layering thick, decadent surfaces of acrylic and glitter.

For this on-site installation, I am taking advantage of the scale of the gallery to create a wonky, massive pile of items I’ve culled from my studio. Individually these items represent imagined narratives, such as a stack of partially deflated mylar balloons that could be the remnants of a party, holding all of its expectations and realities. As a group, they are a series of vignettes smashed together, everything all at once.

Melinda Laszczynski is a 2015 MFA Candidate at the University of Houston, where she is currently a Teaching Fellow. She graduated from The Cleveland Institute of Art in 2010 with a BFA in Painting. She has been in numerous exhibitions in the Houston, TX and Cleveland, OH areas, including Jam Don’t Shake at Settlement Goods, This End Up at Lawndale Art Center, In-Turn at Zygote Press. and Always Plus One Day at Fresh Arts. Her work can be found in private and corporate collections, including University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH and Avery Denison in Mentor, OH. Laszczynski was featured in New American Paintings MFA Annual #111.