Mel Prest

Review: Mel Prest, "Color Unfolding", September 4, 2021

I’m excited to share a review by DeWitt Cheng of my show for Visual Art Source.

Solo Show: Color Unfolding, July 15-August 31, 2021

K. Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco

Group Show: Color Play, June 20-December 31, 2021

Garvey | Simon, New York

I had a small painting in the de Young Open Exhibit, October 10, 2020-January 3, 2021

My husband, Andrew Kleindolph, and I had our first collaborative show and installation this summer at The Great Highway Gallery. We did a huge window installation with my biggest wall drawing yet. If you click here and visit Andrew’s site you can see more about the show.

This fall I’m honored to be an artist in residence at Bullseye Projects, where I have the opportunity learn how to work in glass. You can learn more about their programs on their website and be sure to follow me on Instagram for updates on what’s happening throughout the residency!

Chandra Cerrito / Art Advisors is pleased to present Rainbow Weather by Mel Prest, the inaugural edition of our Commissioned Art Program.

Mel Prest's work is inspired by naturally occurring light phenomena. Rainbow Weather, her new installation and one of her largest works to date, plays off moments of clarity, obscurity and high drama she sees in the sky. Rainbow Weather utilizes and expands on a series of 5 x 5 x 2" paintings on panel Prest made over the past few years, which have never been shown. Using these panels and their colors as a starting point, she created a large wall installation designed specifically for the space. The new work incorporates several different structures: single panels, grouping where colors and internal forms play off one another, and "ladder" shapes (28 panels hung in 2 parallel lines). Prest has composed clusters of seemingly monochrome panels, though most have their sides painted, and some have low contrast colors painted on the surface. Rainbow Weather also includes a hand-drawn wall painting in pale yellow that rests under the panels, shifting in visibility as viewers move around the piece. This is the first time Prest has shown a wall drawing and painting panels together as a single installation.

A group exhibition featuring works by six contemporary artists who explore flora in a wide range of media. This first-ever show co-curated by Ellen Hackl Fagan and Elizabeth Garvey combines artists from their respective programs.

Artists include: Christopher Adams, Jackie Battenfield, Daisy Craddock, Sally Gil, Mel Prest, and Sung Won Yun.

While Bay Area art history is rooted in figurative art, the past few decades show us that abstract art is flourishing. The work in About Abstraction suggests a kinship with the Abstract Expressionist movement of 1940s SoHo and San Francisco, and illustrates the enduring vitality and power of nonrepresentational art for well over a century. 

Participating Artists:

Lorene Anderson, Eva Bovenzi, Donna Brookman, Heather Day, Amy Ellingson, Linda Geary, Rebekah Goldstein, Emanuela Harris-Sintamarian, Danielle Lawrence, Naomie Kremer, Michelle Mansour, Alicia McCarthy, Mel Prest, Cornelia Schulz, Michele Théberge, Canan Tolon

I’m excited about new works I made while my studio was closed due to the pandemic and I worked on watercolors from home. This series are micaceous and mineral watercolors on 300lb Fabriano hot press watercolor paper, 28x22 inches. The work is inspired by the structure of time outside capitalism. I was deeply inspired by a podcast segment titled A Brief History of Timekeeping from On the Media.

Group Show: XS, October 21-November 29, 2020

I'm excited to be included in this group show with Alfa gallery. The show is held online at Artsy.

Residency: Willapa Bay, August 2021

I’ll be returning to Willapa Bay in August 2021 after my first visit in 2015.

On Display: Work at the Crocker Art Museum

My work is currently on display at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA.

Sneak a peek of my site-specific glass piece that interprets the scents and colors of California wildflowers. Here is a short video of the wall drawing upon which the glass panels will float.

Recent Acquisitions:

Victorian Box/Mock Orange acquired by Berkeley Museum of Art

Sun Cloud acquired by Mills College Art Museum

Blue Morning Glory acquired by the Crocker Museum of Art

Pop-Up Art Fair: East Cut Art Fair

January 12-14, 2018

See my work with Chandra Cerrito Gallery at the East Cut Art Fair.

January 13, 10-7pm | January 14, 11-5pm 

A boutique pop-up art fair, called The East Cut Art Fair, will take place in a 3,000 foot retail storefront at 160 Spear, just south of Market Street in mid-January 2018. Timed to coincide with the two major international fairs, Fog Design + Art, and Untitled, San Francisco, which will be held over the same weekend, The East Cut Art Fair will feature contemporary art that has been curated by four Bay Area art galleries, all under one roof. Participating galleries include Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, George Lawson Gallery, Seager Gray Gallery, and SLATE Contemporary.

Group Show: With Liberty and Justice for Some, September 23-October 8, 2017

Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
Curated by Monica Lundy and Walter Maciel

Group Show: Sluice Biennial, September 30-October 3, 2017

Bohemia Place & Morning Lane, Hackney Central, London
Curated by Hanz Hancock & Patrick Morrissey, Saturation Point

Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, Oakland, CA

Artist talk at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, moderated by Caitlin Haskell, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMoMA.