Current Exhibition

While Griffis mines her past to recreate the city, she was also greatly inspired by the architectural features of the historic Birge Mansion.  An echo of what is represented in the iconic curvature of the main atrium, is prominent in the imagery she has chosen to interact with in spaces throughout the city. The work Delaware park, captures Hoyt Lake and highlights its graceful curve, mirroring the curves of the round house— another name for the Birge Mansion. This is also seen in the painting of Kleinhans Music Hall, where the signature swell of the building beautifully highlights The Birge’s turns.  This theme continues in the dramatic curvatures of the Niagara Falls series of works.

Central to the show, and essential to the transportive, drama of the work, is the installation Niagara — a sculptural installation that is a reflection of the things we carry, the psychological complexities that are handed down from generation to generation. Some of what a lineage holds can be a heavy weight to bare. Niagara is personified and does not stop the natural development that comes from following the truth of things. Light both in brightness and weightlessness is represented in the form that is suspended between the two floors of the gallery. No longer bound by old paradigms the metaphorical water falls only to be supported.

That Melora’s work depicts the dramatic and mines the psychological is no surprise since she is also a professional actor and performance artist.  Griffis is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York City and has worked extensively in film, television, and theatre. After starring in the feature film blessing, (Sundance Film Festival Spirit Award) with her father Guy Griffis, she moved to Los Angeles, where she attended The Santa Monica College of Design, Art, and Architecture’s mentor program. Melora has written, designed, choreographed/directed, and performed in, over a dozen performance art works in New York City and abroad.

Griffis received her BFA from The Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts (Montpelier, VT). She has had solo exhibitions at 571 Projects (New York, NY & Stowe, Vermont), The Re Institute (Millerton, NY) the Pamela Williams Gallery (Amagansett, NY), Lizan Tops Gallery and AE Gallery (both East Hampton, NY), Whitney Art Works (Greenport, NY), and at the Sara Nightingale Gallery (Sag Harbor, NY.) Her work has been included in group shows in New York City at the Nino Mier Gallery, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, Edward Thorp Gallery, White Columns, Bowman/Bloom Gallery, Michael Steinberg, and outside of Manhattan at Ille Arts, (Amagansett, NY), Silas Marder (Bridgehampton, NY), and Boltax Gallery (Shelter Island, NY) among others. Griffis has received fellowships from Le Moulin à Nef (Auvillar, France), Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus (Schwandorf, Germany), the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, (Ithaca, NY), Schloss Pluschow (Mecklenberg-Vorpommern, Germany), The Edward F. Albee Foundation (Montauk, NY) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Amherst, VA).