Dawn Mellor: Vile Affections

About

For the past ten years, Dawn Mellor has been painting portraits of celebrities, consciously misrepresenting, sexualising and violating imagery culled from photographic portraits, gossip magazines, film stills and the internet. The combination of imaginative sadistic cruelty, satire and empathy could be seen as communicating something about the use of both individuals and groups as scapegoats onto which unwanted fears and anxieties are projected. 'Vile Affections' has been influenced by Dante's Divine Comedy, the exhibition is an investigation of 'High Society' in the form of a portrait gallery, where various ambassadors from the worlds of fashion, politics, music, film, art and literature suffer with varying degrees of dignity and respect.