Melora Griffis: city of no illusions
Melora Griffis, the canoes, 2024
Griffis transforms familiar buildings, eclectic corners, and majestic landmarks into a phsychologicaly explorative body of work, one that brings her own perspective - a deeply feminine veracity - to the landscpae of her youth.
Melora Griffis spent much of her childhood in Buffalo, New York and on the shores of Lake Erie. She returns after living and working in New York City for thirty years, to create mixed media paintings that transform familiar buildings, eclectic corners, and majestic landmarks into a phsychologicaly explorative body of work, one that brings her own perspective - a deeply feminine veracity - to the landscpae of her youth.
Griffis's reinvention of the city feels theatrical in nature. When we step into her Buffalo, its like stepping onto a stage, the buildings and sites akin to set pieces. She often exaggerates colors and uses fabric, embroidery thread and other textiles to add a tactile, playfulness to the pieces, a playfulness that is often communicating more complex, profound ideas. Its the passage of time and the safety of distance that enabled the artist to engage with the past and illuminate it in away that brings both the light and dark to center stage. 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 - falls, a sculpture 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).
