What’s On View from Isabella Mellado at YoungArts
The celebrated artist Isabella Mellado presents bewitching photographs and paintings in a solo exhibition at YoungArts. The 2014 YoungArts Winner in Visual Arts probes the multifaceted realities of their experience as a queer Puerto Rican of the diaspora, interlacing allusions to folklore, tarot, and astrology. The photograph Fallen Angel (2023) depicts a figure donning a metallic embroidered mask reminiscent of the stubborn yet fiercely loyal taurus, juxtaposed against a pastel wall mural of innocent cherubs. In the image Forward (2022), a figure glamorously dressed in a satin gown and opera gloves emerges from the purifying ocean; surreal tattoos peek out on exposed skin, and a luminous, moon-like mask both conceals and reveals.
Isabella Mellado, “Hidden Sunshine,” 2022, courtesy of the artist and YoungArts.
Isabella Mellado, “Forward,” 2022, courtesy of the artist and YoungArts.
