Melissa Coote

The exhibit of "Under" new paintings, at the Earl McGrath Gallery New York, is Melissa Coote's first solo show with the gallery. Coote's "Under" paintings are large scale and compelling, deriving from multiple sources. Melissa Coote has developed a technique, which involves three discreet stages in her painting process. Initially Melissa begins by building-up her surface layer upon layer. Before long the subject is drawn in, as the image is manipulated until it has reached a stage of representational accuracy. Melissa then strips the work down through rubbing, scrubbing, drilling and erasing parts on the canvas until she then reveals an underlying form. This process Melissa Coote has developed of both stripping and layering aims at retaining a final resolution, an iconic shape, powerfully primal in presence. While each series may appear different, they all grow out of one another. The work is uncanny 'muses' that observes the observer. As Melissa Coote explains: "Each of my works feeds off the preceding one morphologically." Melissa Coote was born and lives in Sydney, Australia, and has an MA Hons, Painting, University of Western Sydney. Melissa has had numerous solo shows internationally before her first solo in New York City with the Earl McGrath Gallery.