PRESS RELEASE FROM "WORKPLACE GALLERY" + ANALYSIS & INTERPREATION

Meredith Sellers’ paintings fuse the traditional concept of paintings as pictorial windows with the boundless possibilities of the digital screen. By appropriating images from a diverse range of sources - including digital advertisements, stock photography, art history and news outlets - Sellers confronts the underlying systems of power, wealth, and violence that shape our contemporary experience. Through the juxtaposition of halting and visceral portrayals of destruction, such as car crashes, alongside subtler indicators of catastrophe like dripping taps and melting ice-shelves, Sellers’ works present a compelling meditation on the prevailing macroeconomic, ecological and political forces that shape us.

Meredith Sellers (b. 1988, Baltimore, USA) is an artist and writer living and working in Philadelphia. Sellers holds a BFA from the MarylandInstitute College of Art and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. Her work will be featured in an upcoming solo exhibition at Fragment Gallery (NY, USA). She has exhibited at Take It Easy, Atlanta, USA (2022); Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at UArts, Philadelphia, USA (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, USA (2013); Lord Ludd, Vox Populi, Icebox Project Space, and Pressure Club, among others. Her work has been featured in Art Papers, Young Space, Maake Magazine, and White Column’s Curated Artist Registry. Curatorial projects include Chewing the Scenery at Crane Arts, The Midnight Sun at Pilot Projects (both co-curated with Jonathan Santoro), and Edith at Esther Klein Gallery. She is an editor for Philadelphia-based online art publication Title Magazine; her writing has appeared in publications including Hyperallergic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, ICA Philadelphia’s Notes, Pelican Bomb, and American Craft Magazine.

Going into further depths

Contemporary experience

It's been mentioned that Seller uses multiple contexts which go on to surround and shape what's happening in our day to day lives, how it impacts our lives. What interested me most about this phrase was that it is true, systems of power, wealth and violence do set an influence upon our lives. The cultural associations surrounding these contexts such as politics allow us to envision her work from different interpretations, ones which we wouldn't suspect upon looking at her work without contexts. it emulates the paintings as we can now look for a deeper meaning and embed our lives, our experiences, how we as individuals feel, into her work hence the phrase 'contemporary experience' being a key phrase of interest to me.

Macroeconomic, ecological and political forces

The contexts surrounding "ice shelf" evidently depict the ecological contexts which are indeed having a domino effect on our politics. The analogous use of both the melting ice berg and the car crash do share similar and significant meanings, hence why it is analogous. when we think of a melting ice berg we as a society have been subjected to the thought of it meaning climate change, which in turn links to political contexts such as new laws and financial pledges which can reduce the ecological impacts of climate change. Political meetings held between world leaders such as G20 and COP 27 are perfect examples of this. In some cases it's evident that there are clashes between agreements and support in climate change action, for instance at the COP27 summit "Serious concern was expressed that the goal of developed country Parties to mobilize jointly USD 100 billion per year by 2020 has not yet been met, with developed countries urged to meet the goal, and multilateral development banks and international financial institutions called on to mobilize climate finance." When we look back on the ice shelf painting we can now start to see multiple interpretations. For instance, having the cars crashing can reference politicians clashing with one another, furthermore even their own citizens and the rest of the global population.

By having the ice berg above and centred above as well as surrounded by negative space - we can also interpret it on a larger scale, the placement and colours additionally hold significance. why? because now it can be interpreted as although the world is now suffering the consequences of the actions made by the leaders of the world. having th car crash be on a larger scale can add emphasis on how significant there roles are, how they are in a way in control of our planet, hence why the crash takes up all that space.

The use of the warm pink can create further juxtaposition as it creates a large level of calmness surround the crash and the melting ice. It forces us to think that in some way the pink can be recognised as the world having to continue to move and work around the climate change, live through the climate change. This links back to the idea of contemporary experiences. Contemporary experiences means it is something that we collectively live through in real time, such as climate change, by having the pink surround the iceberg, it ultimately means that we as a society are having to accept climate change, and maybe accept the nothing major will get done in time to prevent the damages on a fast level. however the planet was here before us, having the iceberg in the middle and the pink encompassing it can be interpreted as the world is now facing - in its own way - the consequences of our actions, what we have done to it and now its tearing apart.

Another interpretation that can be depicted is how cars directly have an effect to melting icebergs. it is a known fact that cars emit carbon dioxide has contributed to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions which in turn increase our temperatures thus leading to the cause of melting icebergs. Further more traffic accidents (car crashes) are known to emit more carbon dioxide which again refers to the iceberg. All in all its evident that the cars crashing into each other creates this negative cohesive reaction which links to icebergs melting.

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https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/why-are-glaciers-and-sea-ice-melting#:~:text=Specifically%2C%20since%20the%20industrial%20revolution,sea%20and%20retreating%20on%20land.

https://unfccc.int/news/cop27-reaches-breakthrough-agreement-on-new-loss-and-damage-fund-for-vulnerable-countries

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