Michele Melillo
Weiterleiten – Referral

Michele Melillo's 'reduction to graphic elements and to the basics for the realization of an idea as well as his unwillingness to show off is what makes his work so appealing. In today’s art scene, there are so many who attempt to attract attention in spectacular ways, to literally “be seen.” And even though Melillo also uses canvas and brushes, his work remains emphatically graphic and very often with subdued colours. Melillo’s graphic style ranges from the carefree lightness of sketches that try to captivate the initial idea in a concise way, to lines that, in the interplay of decorative and ornamental elements, are free to develop and become autonomous with his use of rigorous contoured lines as part of a precisely placed formal vocabulary. (…) Design elements such as shading take on a life of their own in net-like condensed patterns and strictly drawn ornamental forms. The recurring scale-like concentric circles as embellishments show precision and contemplative diligence in their implementation (…). Melillo’s work, however, lives in the rifts between delicate ornaments and painterly abstraction, graphic narrative and gestural association, telling stories and  keeping secrets, implications and disguises." 

 

(Excerpt from the essay by Veit Ziegelmaier, Myths and Rituals or: The Fabulous Destiny of Michele Melillo, in: Michele Melillo, Hirmer Verlag, München 2019, translation: Christopher Doherty)