Melanie Smith: Leave it to the Amateurs

About

Parafin is delighted to announce its first exhibition with the internationally acclaimed artist Melanie Smith. Melanie Smith (born 1965), widely considered one of the leading artists of her generation, was born and studied in the UK but moved to Mexico City in 1989. 

Parafin’s exhibition will focus on Vortex (2019-20), a new work that continues her investigation into the deconstruction of the pictorial plane using the resources of performance, sculpture and the moving image. From the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Smith remote-directed and recorded the production of an ambitious tableau vivant installed in the MUAC in Mexico City, based on William Blake’s The Circle of the Lustful (1824-1827). That performative event has formed the basis for a new film and accompanying photographs and collages. They are exhibited alongside a series of recent paintings on panel, based on fragments of Blake’s paintings, often with telling details redacted.