Robert Melee: The Magnetic Grotesque
by John Mendelsohn

During the summer of 2009, four large-scale bronze sculptures by Robert Melee bubbled to life in New York’s City Hall Park, their rough accretions materialized into hulking masses. Oozing rivulets of multi-colored enamel paint like queasy marbleizing, these abstract forms appeared extravagantly slimed or covered with flowing wounds. Both human and monstrous, they had the power to attract and repel. This dual quality, along with psychic dislocation transmuted into visual and physical form, has been a central feature of Melee’s work in painting, video, and sculpture over the past 15 years.

Her Chair, 2008.
Wood, plaster, enamel, chair, and fiberglass mannequin, 64.25 x 52 x 24.5 in.

 

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