MELISSA MEYER

Sept. 6 – Oct. 8, 2005

The Elizabeth Harris Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by Melissa Meyer . The Gallery is located at 529 West 20 th Street , 6 th floor, and is open Tuesday through Saturday 10-6. There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, September 6, from 6-8.

Melissa Meyer, who David Cohen described in The New York Sun as “virtually without peer as a lyrical abstractionist,” returned at the end of May from a residency at the Bogliasco Foundation outside of Genoa . These new oil paintings, filled with light, air, and intense color, reflect the influence of the watercolors she created in her studio there in a garden overlooking the Mediterranean . Meyer, continuing to use a loosely constructed grid, merges the transparency of watercolor with the muscularity of oil paint. David Cohen also wrote “It is a calligraphic melding of line and color that truly conveys the lyrical impulse. Ms. Meyer's painting entails an almost alchemical marriage of figure and ground, which are represented in her work by gesture and bleed…This is an exhilarating duet between open and closed forms, between lasso-like calligraphy and dense, blob-like hieroglyphs….Everything is exactly where is should be yet it is all an exhilarating surprise.”

Melissa Meyer, who has exhibited in more than 120 solo and group shows, has work in numerous public and private collections including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

For further information contact Miles Manning at 212 463-9666.