The Mythologic Explorations of Painter Melora Kuhn

Germantown-based painter Melora Kuhn attracts inspiration from American historical past, fairy tales, and mythology. She takes particular photographs and alters them in an effort to look at patterns of pondering and methods of being with a mode that’s without delay acquainted and elusive to pin down. 

Her portray Banished, which is a part of the group present “Freaky Flowers” at September Gallery in Kinderhook via Could 28, depicts two ladies whose Victorian black clothes stand in stark distinction to a vivid, floral background. The depth of their gaze confronts the viewer, defying judgment. “Banished was created from a discovered black-and-white {photograph} a pal gave me from the nineteenth century. The picture was compelling to me, elevating extra questions than solutions. I made up my very own story and titled it accordingly. The remainder I go away to the viewer to find for themselves,” Kuhn says.

Kuhn’s work are an open-ended investigation of the self in society. “I hope my work presents questions for exploration,” she says. “For instance, why would these women be banished? Wouldn’t it be that their sexual preferences don’t align with the church? Or have they got an excessive amount of information of the crops round them and what they’ll do?”

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The Rape of the Sabine with reflection, oil on canvas, 78″ x 60″, 2018

Kuhn’s catalog showcases her information of classical works. “After the Rape of the Sabine Ladies, Sebastiano Ricci” (2023) is a research of the late Venetian faculty and highlights her skilled information of texture and tone. After Derek Jarman (2023) is a portrait of a screaming lady whose Baroque gown stands in distinction to daring splotches of colour that give the work a modernist high quality. The heavy brushstrokes of different items recall Goya and even Van Gogh. 

The Lion’s Roar (2022) is a stark depiction of a lion in a desert panorama. Kuhn’s use of unfavourable area is provocative. She is as all for what’s unnoticed as what’s included. Stable kinds appear to deteriorate, and what seems to be one factor could be one thing completely different fully. The impact is fascinating, surreal, and timeless. 

On the coronary heart of Kuhn’s work is an curiosity in how photographs and tales from completely different cultures reveal how western convictions have formed the place we at the moment are, as people and as a society. “I hope to know thought buildings which have rooted themselves inside me, and with this recognition decolonize my thoughts and physique,” she says.  


Using a strict schedule, Kuhn works 5 days per week, six to eight hours a day, with weekends off. She plans three meals a day at roughly the identical time and wears a uniform to keep away from expending vitality in deciding what outfit to decide on. “I discover the regularity of that routine offers me a great construction to work inside,” she says. 

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